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Hollingsworth LLP Files Cert Petition Challenging EPA’s Territorial Overreach.

news | December 23, 2014

Notwithstanding the acknowledged territorial limits on its enforcement authority, EPA fined Volvo over $62 million for nonroad engines that were both manufactured and sold abroadon the ground that they did not meet EPA’s emission standards.  On behalf of Volvo, Hollingsworth LLP has filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court challenging EPA’s territorial overreach.

The questions presented in the petition are:
 
1.    Whether EPA exceeds its regulatory authority under the Clean Air Act by imposing more than $62 million in penalties for foreign engine emissions based on a consent decree that limits EPA’s enforcement power to the territorial reach of the Act.

2.    Whether a court violates its obligation to ensure that a consent decree furthers the objectives of the statute being enforced by construing consent decree provisions contrary to incorporated statutory language.
 
Click here to read the cert petition.