EPA is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a district court ruling that the agency warns would "eviscerate" its new source review (NSR) enforcement abilities by barring EPA from using its own emission estimates to bring cases and make it easier for facility owners to avoid NSR enforcement by intentionally holding down emissions for five years. The case, United States v. Detroit Edison [DTE] Energy Corp., is the first at the appellate level to address an interpretation of controversial Bush-era 2002 NSR reforms designed to simplify the permitting program, which requires existing facilities undergoing major modifications to install expensive controls to reduce emissions. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys in a Feb. 17 brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit say that letting the ruling stand would "eviscerate" Clean Air Act enforcement within the circuit. DOJ says the lower court cited the Bush EPA's 2002 NSR reform rules to bar the agency from pursuing "pre-construction" enforcement of alleged NSR violations, and limited its ability to bring enforcement to cases based on post-construction monitoring.
展开▼
机译：EPA要求联邦上诉法院推翻地方法院的一项裁决，该裁决警告该机构警告，将禁止EPA使用其自身的排放估算来提起诉讼，并使设施所有者更容易进行，从而“使其”新来源审查（NSR）执法能力“下降”。通过故意降低排放量五年来避免执行NSR。美国诉底特律爱迪生[DTE] Energy Corp.案是上诉案件中第一个针对有争议的布什时代2002年NSR改革的解释，该改革旨在简化许可程序，该程序要求对现有设施进行重大修改，安装昂贵的控件以减少排放。司法部（DOJ）律师在2月17日给美国第六巡回上诉法院的摘要中说，让裁决立场“会使巡回法庭内的《清洁空气法》执行变得“模糊”。司法部说，下级法院引用了布什EPA 2002年的NSR改革规则，以禁止该机构对所谓的NSR违规行为进行“施工前”执法，并限制了其根据施工后监测对案件进行执法的能力。
展开▼
