Although NWEA recently signed a settlement with EPA over its own challenge to EPA’s Vessel General Permit (VGP), the shipping industry had continued to press its own court case against the VGP in the D.C. Circuit. NWEA is an intervenor in the shipping industry’s lawsuit. (The VGP is EPA’s response to over ten years of litigation by NWEA to require Clean Water Act permits for vessel discharges, including ballast water laden with invasive species.) On March 1, NWEA filed its brief with the court, focusing on the arguments made by the Lake Carriers Association, on behalf of the shipping industry, that states did not have the authority to attach their own conditions to the EPA permit…Read More
