A federal appellate court, in a rare reversal of an earlier decision, has found that EPA erred in rejecting a Texas plan for meeting federal smog regulations.
In a unanimous opinion issued Friday, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited factors that included EPA’s own recent about-face in concluding that the agency was wrong to reject the state’s plan for satisfying “good neighbor” requirements tied to compliance with the 2015 ozone pollution standard.
The panel, led by Judge Priscilla Richman, accordingly withdrew its opinion from last March upholding EPA’s earlier disapproval of the state plan. In the new ruling, the panel retained its earlier finding that EPA also erred in disapproving Mississippi’s plan, but — on procedural grounds — upheld the disapproval of Louisiana’s good neighbor blueprint.
Richman, an appointee of President George W. Bush, pointed to an EPA proposal released in January that seeks to undo similar Biden-era disapprovals of plans submitted by Alabama and four other states by relying on a different analytical framework.
