In Rebuke To Wheeler, Court Swiftly Sides With Greens. According to E&E News, “Newly minted acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler got his first legal slap on the wrist today. In a win for environmental groups, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted an emergency stay this afternoon of a July 6 EPA order meant to delay enforcement of a regulation on high-emission trucks. It was the first court loss for EPA under Wheeler’s watch. The court’s action was swift. Three environmental groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund — had filed a motion requesting the stay only yesterday. The court ruled 2-1 to temporarily suspend implementation of the order. It will now consider the green groups’ request for a longer stay. The EPA order in question, which was issued on former Administrator Scott Pruitt’s last day in office, would have lifted a cap on the manufacturing of high-emission trucks known as glider kits. Under the order, companies would have been allowed to manufacture thousands of gliders, which emit as much as 55 times the air pollution of trucks with modern emission controls. While the directive came under Pruitt, the groups had faulted Wheeler for failing to reverse it. ‘The D.C. Circuit’s swift action highlights the extreme nature of this lawless attempt to put more ultra-dirty trucks on our roads,’ said Vera Pardee, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. ‘Andrew Wheeler didn’t block Pruitt’s putrid final shot at harming the American public, but the court did.’” [E&E News, 7/18/18 (=)]

 

Court Orders EPA To Enforce Glider Truck Rule, At Least Temporarily. According to Politico, “A split panel of judges on the D.C. Circuit today ordered EPA to resume enforcing, at least temporarily, a strict production cap on ‘glider’ trucks following pleas from environmental groups. The court cautioned that its order is only to give it time to fully consider the environmentalists’ motion to permanently reverse EPA’s decision earlier this month not to enforce the cap, ‘and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion.’ In one of his final acts as administrator, Scott Pruitt told glider manufacturers that EPA would not enforce the 300-unit production cap for 2018, opening the door for those companies to sell significantly more trucks. Environmentalists sued on Monday. Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler told the Washington Examiner this week that the cap was not going to be enforced while the agency considers repealing it entirely because the companies were in danger of shuttering in the meantime. The case is being heard by Judges Judith Rogers, Thomas Griffith and Robert Wilkins. Griffith voted against staying EPA’s enforcement decision. WHAT’S NEXT: The court ordered EPA to respond to the green groups by 4 p.m. on July 25, with any environmentalist reaction to that due by July 27. That tees up a decision on a potential longer-term stay to be issued as soon as late July or early August.” [Politico, 7/18/18 (=)]

 

D.C. Circuit Stays EPA Glider Enforcement Waiver To Allow For More Review. According to Inside EPA, “One day after a request from environmentalists, an appellate court has temporarily stayed EPA’s plan to waive enforcement of production restrictions on high-emitting ‘glider’ trucks, delivering a preliminary victory to environmentalist as the court weighs their broader request to vacate the enforcement decision. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in a July 18 order partially grants an emergency motion to stay the enforcement policy that was filed the day before by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity. The court says it is staying the agency’s ‘no action assurance’ memo to give it more time to consider the issues raised by the motion. ‘The purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,’ the order states. The order indicates two judges out of a three-judge panel -- Judith Rogers and Robert Wilkins -- favored the stay while Thomas Griffith opposed it. The ruling signals continuing roadblocks to EPA’s effort to essentially deregulate the glider sector, a highly controversial policy that has sparked opposition from an unusual coalition of environmentalists, state officials and industry and ensured litigation over the issue.” [Inside EPA, 7/18/18 (=)]