Court Nixes Challenge to EPA Emissions Omissions

(CN) - An environmental group's challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency's exclusion of emissions data during natural disasters was too vague, the D.C. Circuit ruled.

The National Resources Defense Council presented the court with a challenge to the the EPA's regulation, established in 2007. The NRDC sought a revision of the events that the EPA considered exceptional. Any event in which humans have even a slight role should not be included, the NRDC argued.

This would include the cleanup from a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina, which the NRDC feared would include "debris burning, operation of diesel equipment, and demolition activities."

Judge Randolph ruled that the NRDC could not prevail because it did not properly cite the portion of the EPA rule it found objectionable.

"No EPA official would have guessed that the NRDC was complaining about the agency's proposed definition of natural event," Randolph wrote.

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