How We Add Value
Combining the strengths of our seasoned appellate, environmental, and regulatory litigators, our highly credentialed team brings deep substantive experience and technical insight to our appellate advocacy. Our lawyers have been integral to appeals of lower court rulings in many environmental matters, including several climate change tort cases, one of which yielded a key Supreme Court decision in our clients’ favor.
We closely monitor the latest developments in environmental policy and legislation, keeping clients informed about the potential business impacts. Our work includes preparing comments on proposed rules, assessing compliance strategies, and defending or challenging environmental permits. We also counsel clients on federal and state enforcement matters, including advising on complex regulations. Our team has litigated and defended permit challenges through the courts of appeals, and defended claims brought against clients in multiple industrial sectors.
Our work also covers all matters before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). If citations are issued, we defend our clients in the ensuing litigation, from initial discovery to trials and appeals before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission and state and federal appeals courts.
Experience
A selection of recent experience includes:
Renewable Fuel Standard Litigation
- Represented HollyFrontier in the U.S. Supreme Court, successfully vacating a 10th Circuit decision addressing the small refinery exemption under the Renewable Fuel Standard.
- Served as lead counsel for refining industry clients in biofuel litigation under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which challenges the EPA’s decisions regarding small refinery exemptions to RFSs that otherwise require the blending of certain amounts of traditional hydrocarbon fuels with renewable fuels.
Environmental Clean-Up
- Secured a major victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on behalf of a multinational conglomerate in addressing polychlorinated biphenyls and other constituents at its former plant site in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and for many miles downstream on the Housatonic River under a federal court consent decree executed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), other federal agencies, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
- Represented Standard Industries in an environmental appeal before the Delaware Supreme Court related to the sale of a former affiliate and the assignation of environmental clean-up liabilities. Sidley lawyers argued the appeal and were successful in getting the lower court’s ruling overturned.
Clean Water Act
- Won three separate appeals on behalf of National Fuel Gas Supply Corporation in litigation arising from the Northern Access pipeline, a $400+ million Federal Energy Regulatory Commission-approved infrastructure project that will transport natural gas through New York and Pennsylvania. The appeals related to compliance with the CWA and whether our client was required to obtain a water quality certification under the Act. On behalf of our client, Sidley notched victories in the D.C. Circuit, the Second Circuit, and the New York Court of Appeals.
- Obtained a decisive victory for Formosa Plastics Corporation (Formosa) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Sidley lawyers were brought in to assist with the appeal of a district court order interpreting a CWA consent decree to require Formosa to pay escalating penalties and to self-report discharge-permit violations whenever a monitor documented the mere presence of plastics in the environment outside Formosa’s Point Comfort, Texas manufacturing plant.
- Secured a victory on behalf of TransCanada Pipelines (TransCanada) when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club and others alleging that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) had acted illegally when it authorized our client to construct and operate the Gulf Coast Pipeline. In a lengthy decision, the appellate court upheld the Corps’ application of the CWA and its conclusion that TransCanada was entitled to invoke Nationwide Permit 12 for this 485-mile pipeline that crossed over 2,000 waterways.
State and Local Ordinances
- Secured a writ of mandate against the California Department of Toxic Substances Control on behalf of the Pacific Auto Recycling Center in regulatory litigation and appeals related to the regulation of the scrap metal recycling industry. The Los Angeles Superior Court initially granted Sidley’s petition, and the California Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment.
- Represented Cummins Inc. in reaching civil settlements to resolve U.S. regulatory claims alleging undisclosed auxiliary emissions control devices and alleging defeat devices in pickup truck applications. This was the culmination of five years of investigations, agency meetings, technical exchanges, and negotiations involving multiple enforcement and regulatory agencies, including the Department of Justice, the EPA, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), and the California Attorney General’s Office.
- Represented the Specialty Equipment Market Association and the National Truck Equipment Association in the organizations’ efforts to prevent the enactment of Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulations proposed by CARB. Sidley successfully sued CARB and the California Attorney General in the Eastern District of California, which resulted in the state withdrawing its request for a waiver and authorization from the EPA for its ACF regulations.
- Obtained a victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on behalf of AES Puerto Rico in challenges to two municipal ordinances that prevented the use or disposal of coal combustion residuals in landfills, holding that the local ordinances were preempted by Puerto Rican commonwealth law.
- Served as lead counsel for a leading rail freight component manufacturer in a lawsuit filed under the CAA against Amsted Rail Company (Amsted) in federal district court in the Southern District of Ohio. The claims arose under the CAA New Source Review/Prevention of Significant Deterioration program related to Amsted’s steel foundry in Groveport, Ohio.
Other Environmental Appeals
- Secured a critical victory on behalf of energy giant Chevron in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The appeals arose from 42 cases removed to federal court. The initial state cases were filed across Louisiana against energy companies claiming their oil and gas operations are responsible for land loss in Louisiana’s coastal zone and demanding these companies “restore” the state’s coast to its “original conditions.”
- Representing American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers in a high-profile challenge to the EPA’s rule revoking California’s regulatory authority to set stricter tailpipe standards for U.S. automobiles.
