EPA Defeats Challenge to Permit Approval for Exxon Expansion

The Environmental Protection Agency’s reasoning behind its decision to reject a challenge to a Clean Air Act permit issued for ExxonMobil’s planned plant expansion in Texas is persuasive and therefore entitled to deference, the Fifth Circuit ruled Friday, in defeat for environmental groups.

ExxonMobil applied for a Title I pre-construction permit to build a new ethylene production facility at its Baytown, Texas, plant in 2012. Because a Plantwide Applicability Limitation permit issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality allowed the company to skip “major” new-source permitting requirements, ExxonMobil was granted a “minor” new-source permit for the project.

The Environmental ...