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Sixth Circuit Holds Environmental Groups Lack Standing to Challenge Air Permits for NEXUS Pipeline Compressor Stations

By Ryan Elliott

On February 21, 2019, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a petition for review of air permits issued by Ohio EPA for two compressor stations to be constructed along the NEXUS pipeline in Ohio. The Court dismissed the petition for review for lack of jurisdiction, holding the environmental groups that filed the petition for review failed to establish standing. In reaching its decision, the Court highlighted that “petitioners bore the burden of establishing the irreducible constitutional minimum of standing” which requires petitioners demonstrate that they (1) suffered an injury in fact, (2) that is fairly traceable to the challenged conduct of the defendant, and (3) that is likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision. The Court also noted that a citizen group can establish standing on behalf of their members, but such “representational standing” requires the group to show that “its members would otherwise have standing to sue in their own right.”

The Court held that petitioners failed to demonstrate the first element of standing – i.e. injury in fact. To demonstrate injury-in-fact, petitioners were required to “make specific allegations establishing that at least one identified member had suffered or would suffer harm.” The Court highlighted that petitioners could not rest on bare allegations to establish a concrete injury. Rather, petitioners were required to “present specific facts through citations to the administrative record or affidavits or other evidence” that at least one member of each petitioner group would suffer a concrete particularized harm from the compressor stations’ emissions.

As an aside - the procedural history of the case is worth mentioning. The environmental groups first appealed Ohio EPA's issuance of the air permits to the Environmental Review Appeals Commission (ERAC). However, ERAC, which has exclusive jurisdiction over appeals from final actions of Ohio EPA and ordinarily would hear appeals of air permits issued by Ohio EPA, dismissed the groups' appeal for lack of jurisdiction. Notably, ERAC held that the federal Natural Gas Act vested original and exclusive jurisdiction of the appeal in the federal Courts of Appeals (see 15 U.S.C. 717r(d)(1)).

Tags: Clean Air Act, Energy, Environment, Standing, Natural Gas Act

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