A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered the EPA to fulfill its obligations under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to initiate financial assurance rulemaking for the hard rock mining industry. The court order responds to a joint motion filed by six environmental groups and the EPA and states that the Agency must propose a financial assurance rule for the industry and publish a final action by specific dates.
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Furthermore, the order directs that the EPA must decide by December 1, 2016, whether it will undertake financial assurance regulations for three additional sectors—chemical manufacturing; petroleum and coal products manufacturing; and electric power generation, transmission, and distribution. The panel’s order focuses on the standing of the environmental petitioners and how a financial assurance regulation would redress the harm or potential harm that waste from the mining industry would cause to parties the petitioners represent.