Litigation - Climate Extra

California Opposes Effort To ‘Short-Circuit’ Suit Over Auto Waiver Repeals

California and allied states are urging the 9th Circuit to continue pausing litigation challenging Biden EPA federal preemption waivers for two of California’s vehicle emissions programs, opposing an industry and EPA bid to dismiss the cases in a way that could also truncate the states’ district court litigation challenging Congress’s repeal of those waivers. “The Court should not countenance this attempt to . . . short-circuit separate litigation that raises novel and complex constitutional claims against unprecedented actions by the...

EDF Sues EPA For Records About DOE Report Doubting Climate Science

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is filing new litigation in an attempt to obtain “greater transparency” about EPA’s use of a controversial report questioning mainstream climate science as part of the agency’s proposal to rescind its greenhouse gas endangerment finding that underpins many of the agency’s climate regulations. In a Sept. 8 complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, EDF explains that it submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to EPA on Aug...

DOE Dissolves Climate Skeptic Group, Spurring Doubts Over Report’s Fate

The Energy Department’s (DOE) decision to dissolve a working group that developed its controversial report questioning mainstream climate science is raising questions about the report’s fate, and its role in supporting EPA’s planned repeal of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding, amid heavy criticism from the scientific community. Even so, the report’s authors and administration officials are pledging to respond to such critiques, while arguing that environmentalists erred in advancing a lawsuit alleging procedural flaws with the working group. According to...

Industry Seeks To Block California GHG-Disclosure Laws During Appeal

Industry groups say a federal district court should block implementation of California’s corporate climate-disclosure laws while they appeal the court’s earlier decision rejecting their request for a preliminary injunction, renewing their argument that implementation will violate their First Amendment rights. “The state’s opposition is based on a false premise: that this motion is a second bite at the preliminary-injunction apple. It is not,” says a Sept. 2 reply brief by the groups in support of their motion for an injunction...

8th Circuit Rejects Gradual DOE Phaseout Of EV Fuel Economy Incentive

A federal court has rejected a Department of Energy (DOE) rule that gradually phased out an incentive for electric vehicles (EVs) under fuel economy rules, delivering a victory to Republican states and liquid fuels groups that opposed Biden officials’ efforts to avoid quickly ending the incentive as the department originally proposed. However, the court decision’s on-the-ground effects remain uncertain, given aggressive moves by the Trump administration and Congress to scale back the bite of both the Department of Transportation’s (DOT)...

Ramping Up Climate Attacks, Republicans Target ELI’s Training For Judges

Republicans are ramping up pressure on the non-profit Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and its climate science education curriculum for judges, claiming the group secretly seeks to tip the legal scales in favor of regulating greenhouse gas emissions, which they say should disqualify it from receiving any EPA grants. While ELI has rejected the assertion, the GOP’s attacks signal an expanding strategy for countering plaintiffs in climate-related cases by attacking the impartiality of judges ruling in those cases. House Judiciary Committee...

Offshore Wind Developers Challenge Trump DOI’s Stop-Work Order

The developers of the Revolution Wind project off the East Coast are suing in federal district court against the Trump administration’s stop-work order for the project, claiming it violates multiple statutes, federal regulations and the Constitution’s due process clause, and seeking emergency relief and vacatur of the order. The order “amounts to nothing more than a pretextual policy change in position [and] is also untimely, unreasonable, and contrary to the administrative record,” says the Sept. 4 complaint filed in the...

DOJ Targets New York Climate ‘Superfund’ Law Over Interstate Liability

The Trump administration is asking a federal judge to quickly rule on its challenge to New York’s climate change “superfund” law, which requires large fossil fuel companies to pay for the state’s climate adaptation, arguing it illegally imposes liability on out-of-state producers in violation of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Constitution. “New York has declared war on those responsible for supplying our Nation with reliable and affordable energy, and it is trampling over federal law in the process,”...

D.C. Circuit Ruling Opens Door To EPA Reclaiming Billions In GHGRF Funds

A split appellate panel has vacated a lower court ruling that stayed EPA efforts to withdraw around $16 billion in funds that the Biden administration distributed from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF), opening the door to officials seeking to reclaim the funds and forcing the plaintiffs to fight the case in claims court where their remedies are limited. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 2-1 in Climate United Fund et...

EPA Says High Court Ruling Boosts Jurisdictional Argument In Grant Case

EPA says a recent Supreme Court decision is boosting its jurisdictional argument in a major clean energy grant terminations case, while attorneys assert the decision is underscoring broader challenges for parties litigating against numerous such Trump administration grant terminations. “The Supreme Court has now twice held that district courts likely lack jurisdiction over [Administrative Procedure Act (APA)] challenges to grant terminations,” the Justice Department (DOJ) arguing on behalf of EPA says in an Aug. 28 filing to the U.S. Court...

Industry Lays Out Arguments Against CARB Challenge To Waiver Repeals

Industry attorneys are laying out arguments to the 9th Circuit for why courts should reject California’s challenge to the approval by Congress and President Donald Trump of Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions that repealed the state’s Clean Air Act preemption waivers to implement several more stringent vehicle emissions rules. The arguments are contained in an Aug. 25 filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce (AmFree), et al. v. EPA...

EPA Grant Recipients Seek To Preserve GHGRF Suit Amid Venue Ruling

EPA grant recipients are seeking to preserve their suit over the Trump EPA’s termination of roughly $20 billion from the Biden-era “green bank” program, filing a brief that seeks to distinguish their case from a recent high court ruling that routed cases over health-care grants to a federal claims court that cannot review many legal arguments. The latest sparring comes as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit continues to weigh a lower court injunction that...

Industry Lawyers Say EPA Offers ‘Compelling’ CAA Interpretation On GHGs

A pair of industry attorneys are expressing confidence in EPA’s “clever” legal arguments supporting its high-profile proposal to rescind the agency’s greenhouse gas endangerment finding, arguing the legal interpretations are more sophisticated than EPA’s separate plan to repeal all of its power plant GHG standards. However, the lawyers are also flagging that industry groups are in a “tough spot” with EPA’s proposal because it is attempting a high-risk legal maneuver that could subject industry to tough rules if it fails...

Environmentalists Urge D.C. Circuit To Quickly Scrap Methane-Delay Rule

Environmental groups are pressing the D.C. Circuit to quickly scrap EPA’s interim final rule (IFR) delaying oil and gas companies’ compliance deadlines for Biden-era methane rules, filing a motion for summary vacatur that argues the interim measure flouts core Clean Air Act procedural requirements. “EPA’s action substantially delays compliance dates under a final Clean Air Act rule the agency issued in 2024, which provides critical protections against some of the nation’s largest sources of air pollution,” the groups say in...

Trump DOJ Seeks Input On State Laws With Heavy Economic ‘Burden’

The Trump administration is seeking input on state laws that critics believe impose a significant economic harm on interstate commerce, an effort that portends a renewed administration push to target state climate and clean energy policies that federal officials are already challenging in various venues. “Anecdotal evidence and the experience of countless Americans across the country strongly suggest that state laws and regulations can significantly burden commerce in other states and between states, thus raising costs unnecessarily and harming markets...

Environmentalists Back New York Climate Change Law Against DOJ Attack

Several environmental groups are asking to intervene on New York’s behalf to defend the state’s Climate Change Superfund Act that requires fossil fuel companies to help fund infrastructure upgrades and disaster mitigation, with the law facing attacks from the Trump administration, industry groups and GOP-led states. The groups filed an Aug. 15 motion to intervene on New York’s behalf in the case, United States, et al. v. New York, et al. , in the U.S. District Court for the Southern...

Trump DOJ Joins Suits To Invalidate California Truck Emissions Agreement

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is joining two industry lawsuits seeking to invalidate the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) 2023 deal with truck manufacturers to reduce emissions, providing additional arguments about why the state cannot enforce standards that DOJ says have been preempted by the federal government. “Agreement, contract, partnership, mandate -- whatever California wants to call it, this unlawful action attempts to undermine federal law,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division...

EPA Bid To Terminate Solar Grants Hinges On Trump’s Budget Law

EPA is arguing last month’s budget reconciliation law requires it to terminate nearly $7 billion in grants for community solar energy deployment because the statute rescinded the agency’s ability to oversee the awards, but recipients are readying litigation against the move and are likely to argue EPA is misinterpreting the new law. “As both the grant appropriations and the EPA’s administrative cost appropriation are rescinded, the agency no longer possesses either the substantive legal authority or the financial appropriations needed...

Joining Litigation, EV Group Cites Harm From Fuel Economy Rule Pause

A group representing companies related to the electric vehicle (EV) sector is joining litigation over the Trump administration’s “interpretive rule” that represents a first step toward rolling back Biden-era fuel economy standards, claiming officials’ decision to pause implementation of the rules is harming manufacturers that meet the limits. According to an Aug. 6 suit over the rule , the Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is not issuing “compliance notifications” to auto manufacturers...

Environmentalists say DOE climate panel violates transparency law

Environmental groups are charging that the Energy Department (DOE) violated Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) requirements by failing to publicize its committee of climate science skeptics that subsequently issued a report challenging the scientific consensus about humans’ effects on climate change and its harms to the public. “Federal law does not permit agencies to create or rely on such secret, unaccountable groups when engaged in policymaking,” the Environmental Defense Fund and the Union of Concerned Scientists argue in an Aug...

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