Air Quality & Climate Change

Air and climate regulation have been at the forefront of EPA’s rulemaking and enforcement agendas, affecting a wide range of companies and industries in unprecedented ways. Our lawyers have extensive experience in the full range of air quality matters, including permitting, compliance counseling and defense of governmental actions. We work with clients to meet their regulatory and enforcement challenges with efficiency and creativity.

Nijman Franzetti’s air quality and climate change practice draws upon the experience of a well-seasoned legal team with a national geographic reach. Our problem-solving involves an understanding of technical issues, including Best Achievable Control Technology (BACT) and Lowest Achievable Emission Rate (LAER), evaluations of air modelling and regulatory applicability determinations. We often assist clients in identifying or evaluating consultants and experts to find those most suited to their needs.

Our lawyers offer a wide range of environmental capabilities, including:

• Obtaining and interpreting construction and operating permits
• Interpretation and application of New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP or MACT)
• Obligations under EPA’s Risk Management Program (RMP) and General Duty Clause related to accidental release planning
• Construction permitting under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) Program and New Source Review (NSR)
• Regulation and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions
• Handling deviations of permits
• Environmental justice considerations associated with siting, permitting and operations
• Working with state and federal regulators, including obtaining agency input on unique circumstances
• Responding to information requests and inspection reports
• Defense of state and federal violation notices, and litigating before courts and administrative bodies

Recent matters handled by our lawyers include:

• Represented a large power management company to develop a PSD permitting strategy for the construction of a state-of-the-art gas-fired power plant
• Defended chemical manufacturer against enforcement action related to air release of ethylene oxide and alleged violations resulting from internal audit
• Represented a large manufacturer to resolve multiple allegations of violations of RMP obligations attributable to a previous owner
• Defended an oil and gas pipeline and terminal operator against federal enforcement action alleging multiple points of fugitive emissions
• Assisted trial counsel in hiring and working with air expert in significant toxic tort trial in Illinois
• Hired and managed air modeling expert in toxic tort air emissions case in the Virgin Islands
• Counselled a large equipment manufacturer on the scope of the construction equipment exemption under the Clean Air Act and California Small Off-Road Engine (SORE) regulations
• Provided critical review of a draft construction permit including for a metal recycler
• Successfully defended a large storage tank terminal operator from a federal enforcement case alleging control technology violations
• Defended printer client against multiple state enforcement actions for alleged violations of reasonably available control technology (RACT) violations
• Negotiated a settlement on behalf of a diversified manufacturer for alleged failure to file necessary reports, maintain recordkeeping or submit annual emission updates
• Advised a Japanese tire manufacturer on candidate locations in the United States for a new facility based upon level of area attainment status
• Counselled a petroleum refinery in responding to information requests regarding air emissions from a fire and explosion