Bart E. Cassidy

Biography:

Bart Cassidy leads the air quality practice team at Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox LLP. Bart has more than twenty years of experience dealing with the legal, technical, and operational aspects of air quality regulations. Bart has represented numerous complex facilities consisting of hundreds of air emission sources, such as petroleum refineries and chemical plants, as well as many minor sources with single or few emission units. In all cases, Bart combines his legal, technical, and business experience to assist clients in identifying applicable requirements and devising a strategy for efficiently and effectively achieving and demonstrating compliance with relevant standards.

Bart has extensive experience with the complex Nonattainment New Source Review ("NNSR") and Prevention of Significant Deterioration ("PSD") programs, including evaluating NNSR/PSD applicability, performing complex netting analyses, and advising clients concerning options to comply with NNSR/PSD.

Bart has assisted numerous clients in securing air quality permits and negotiating permit terms with regulatory agencies. This permitting experience extends to state construction and operating permits and complex Title V operating permits.

Bart has responded to many state and federal information requests and enforcement inquiries, defended companies against enforcement proceedings, and negotiated numerous consent decrees and consent orders with both federal and state agencies, including complex consent decrees under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") national petroleum refinery initiative.

Bart has appeared before federal and state judicial and administrative tribunals on behalf of clients in the context of challenging adverse permit terms, defending permits against third party challenges, and defending against enforcement actions. He also has represented companies and trade associations before the federal appellate courts in challenges to regulations or regulatory applicability determinations. These actions have included challenges to the NOx SIP Call rule, federal Clean Air Interstate Rule ("CAIR"), and Clean Air Mercury Rule ("CAMR") regulations, and facility-specific regulatory applicability determinations.

Among his many engagements relevant to air quality law, the following list provides a survey of representative matters:

• representing Fortune 500 companies in the petroleum refining, energy production, and chemical formulation industries in securing air quality permits for new sources, or major modifications to existing sources, with provisions that minimized regulatory burden and maximized operational flexibility, while limiting the time necessary for permit application review and permit issuance;
• representing a national petroleum refiner in negotiations of a major federal consent decree under EPA's petroleum refinery enforcement initiative;
• representing electric generating units in responding to EPA enforcement actions alleging noncompliance with New Source Review provisions for alleged modifications to existing equipment;
• representing clients before both the Third Circuit and D.C. Circuit Courts of Appeals in challenging an EPA applicability determination regarding a categorical Maximum Achievable Control Technology ("MACT") regulatory program, and EPA's major regulatory promulgations under the NOx SIP Call, CAIR, and CAMR programs;
• providing frequent advice to large and small companies regarding compliance obligations and opportunities under both state and federal regulatory programs, satisfaction of compliance certification requirements, and development of compliance programs designed to minimize regulatory burden while improving environmental performance and facilitating compliance certifications;
• initiating and pursuing challenges to objectionable permits before state administrative tribunals and the federal Environmental Appeals Board, in most cases resulting in negotiated revisions and reissuance of the permits in a form acceptable to the companies; and
• negotiating numerous contracts governing the purchase and sale of emission reduction credits and emission allowances.

Upon graduation from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Bart earned six prizes for academic excellence, including the award for highest achievement in appellate argument competition, the Frank H. Gelman Prize for excellence in the subjects of real property and real estate transactions, and the Peter McCall Prize for the highest grades in his class over all three years. He also became a member of the Order of the Coif. Bart earned a master of science degree in civil engineering with a concentration in environmental engineering from the Polytechnic University in New York, and a bachelor's degree in engineering from Swarthmore College with a concentration in environmental engineering and chemistry.

Bart is a frequent speaker and author on many air quality-related topics.

Education:

• University of Pennsylvania Law School, J.D., summa cum laude, 1992
• Polytechnic University in New York, M.S.C.E., 1989
• Swarthmore College, B.S., 1985

Memberships:

• Bar admissions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, District of New Jersey, Third Circuit Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals
• Licensed professional engineer in Pennsylvania and New York
• National Society of Professional Engineers
• Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers
• American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources
• Pennsylvania Bar Association, Environmental, Mineral, and Natural Resources Law Section
• Philadelphia Bar Association, Environmental Law Committee