Supreme Court Picks Up Venue Dispute Over State Ozone Air Plans

The US Supreme Court will review a state bid to resolve whether brawls over Good Neighbor ozone plans are best heard in Washington or other regional federal circuits.

Justices have picked up a petition from companies and GOP-led states urging review of a decision from a western federal circuit that deviated from sister courts when it tossed an ozone challenge to a D.C. appellate panel in March.

A panel at the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit told Oklahoma, PacifiCorp, and other challengers that their lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency’s traveling ozone plans belongs at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and not under regional purview where they may have a greater advantage of getting the rule frozen.

Critics of the two part rule have litigation pending in courts all over the country, looking to quash both prongs of the regulation: the dissolution of state ozone plans and the federal replacement imposed by the EPA.

This petition involves litigation over the first prong. Most states involved in similar cases have had success in getting court stays while their cases proceed, but Oklahoma and other critics were denied by the Tenth Circuit.

The cases are PacifiCorp v. EPA, U.S., No. 23-1068, Decision 10/21/24 and Oklahoma v. EPA, U.S., No. 23-1067, Decision 10/21/24.