Clean Air Act Title V Petitions to Object

• Client: Midwest Generation, LLC
• Date: May 2008
• Location: Chicago area

Summary:

The Illinois attorney general and several environmental groups opposed the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's issuance of Clean Air Act Permit Program (Title V) permits to Midwest Generation's power plants. In addition, they petitioned the United States EPA to object to their issuance, alleging that the permits should have included conditions requiring Midwest Generation to comply with emission limitations not proven to apply to it and compliance plans addressing alleged violations of the opacity standards.

The U.S. EPA denied their petitions, and the petitioners appealed the U.S. EPA's decision in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Schiff Hardin intervened on behalf of Midwest Generation. The court found that the Illinois attorney general did not have standing to object to the issuance of the permits, and upheld the U.S. EPA's denials of the environmental groups' petitions.

Citizens Against Ruining the Environment, et al. v. EPA and Midwest Generation, LLC, 535 F.3d 670 (7th Cir. 2008)