The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) improperly relied on a “functional interrelationship” analysis to determine that a natural gas sweetening plant and approximately 100 natural gas well sites scattered over 43 square miles constituted a single stationary source under the Clean Air Act (CAA). Summit Petroleum Corp. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 690 F.3d 733 (6th Cir. 2012). As a result, EPA may need to reconsider its longstanding position on how broadly the term “single source” sweeps, which could impact facilities far beyond the oil and gas industry.
Court vacates EPA ‘Adjacency’ determination under the Clean Air Act
Court vacates EPA ‘Adjacency’ determination under the Clean Air Act
Vol. 44 No. 2
S. Lee Johnson is a partner at the Honigman, Miller Schwartz & Cohn LLP law firm. He represented the appellant in the Summit Petroleum case.
