Dive Summary:

• GenOn Energy, a unit of NRG Energy, must face a lawsuit by property owners concerning its coal plant in Springsdale, Pennsylvania and ash pollution damaging properties nearby, the U.S. Appeals Court in Philadelphia ruled. The three-judge panel reversed a decision by a lower court to dismiss the suit.
• The judges rejected GenOn’s contention that the Clean Air act pre-empts state lawsuits by property owners. The court noted: “We see nothing in the Clean Air Act to indicate that Congress intended to pre-empt source state common law tort claims. If Congress intended to eliminate such private causes of action, ‘its failure even to hint at’ this result would be ‘spectacularly odd’.”
• According to the suit filed in state court in April 2012, homeowners near GenOn’s Cheswick Generating Station are seeking damages for the plant’s odors which trapped them indoors and for ash and byproducts which swept over their property.

From the article:

“We see nothing in the Clean Air Act to indicate that Congress intended to pre-empt source state common law tort claims,” the appeals court said. “If Congress intended to eliminate such private causes of action, ‘its failure even to hint at’ this result would be ‘spectacularly odd’.”