Law360, New York (May 26, 2015, 7:48 PM ET) — The city of Houston on Friday threw its weight behind environmental groups’ bid to revive a $641 million suit against Exxon Mobil Corp. over alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, urging the Fifth Circuit to reverse a lower court’s “errors of law.”
Houston, joined by Harris County and advocacy group Air Alliance Houston, argued in an amicus brief that a Texas federal judge who dismissed the suit erred in denying any remedy for dozens of CAA violations arising from Exxon’s Baytown refining and chemical complex, the largest petrochemical complex in the United States, the brief noted.
“The combined denial of any and all relief — injunctive, monetary and declaratory — for the 94 Clean Air Act violations the district court determined were actionable and for the thousands more it should have recognized as actionable, in an area where air pollution already exceeds health-based standards, was based on legal and factual errors and was a clear abuse of discretion,” the brief said.
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