Litigation - Climate Extra

Oil Industry Asks Supreme Court To Halt Boulder’s Climate Nuisance Case

The oil industry is again asking the Supreme Court to halt one of a series of climate tort cases from proceeding in state courts despite a series of failed requests for the high court to intervene in the cases, after Colorado’s highest court ruled that Boulder’s case against oil majors can proceed. The Aug. 8 petition for a writ of certiorari in Suncor Energy, et al. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, et al. , asks the justices to...

Environmentalists Outline Legal Case Against EPA’s Utility GHG Rule Repeal

Major environmental groups are detailing their legal case against EPA’s proposal to repeal greenhouse gas standards for power plants, arguing the plan is “fundamentally” at odds with the Clean Air Act’s purpose and that numerous provisions are unlawfully arbitrary including a failure to weigh key emissions implications of the proposal. EPA’s view is “squarely at odds with the statutory text and structure,” says Aug. 7 comments from a half dozen major environmental groups. There, the environmentalists are referring to EPA’s...

South Carolina Court Dismisses Charleston’s Climate Nuisance Suit

A South Carolina state court is siding with the oil industry and dismissing Charleston’s climate change nuisance and fraud suit, a step that industry says adds to a list of courts that have scuttled such suits even as multiple other courts are allowing such climate cases to proceed. In an Aug. 6 decision in City of Charleston v. Brabham Oil Co., et al. , Judge Roger Young Sr. of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas holds that federal law...

Court Blocks FEMA From Diverting Funds Intended For Climate Resilience

A district court is blocking the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from diverting pre-disaster mitigation funds to other purposes, a move that temporarily blocks the Trump administration’s attempt to end a major program used for climate resilience projects. The order comes despite FEMA complaints that the case is not yet ripe because the agency has not yet formally terminated the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. “The government is preliminarily enjoined from spending the funds allocated to BRIC for...

EPA’s GHG Plans Invite High Court To Scuttle Massachusetts, Experts Say

EPA is inviting the Supreme Court to revisit a nearly 20-year-old decision paving the way for the agency’s greenhouse gas standards, experts say, as the Trump administration’s two proposals to scuttle GHG regulatory authority appear designed as a challenge to that decision to foreclose virtually any future standards. These experts say key elements of EPA’s recent proposal to rescind its 2009 GHG endangerment finding either ignore or conflict with language in the high court’s 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA...

Democratic States Urge 8th Circuit To Keep SEC Climate Rule Suit Paused

Democratic-led states that have intervened to defend the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) high-profile climate-related disclosure rule are urging an appellate court to continue a pause in litigation over the rule, until the commission’s GOP majority clearly states how it would respond to a possible court ruling upholding the measure. The states are criticizing the SEC’s request for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit to rule on the merits to the challenges of the Biden-era rule, ostensibly...

Environmental Groups Challenge Oil & Gas Methane Standards Delay

A dozen environmental groups are challenging EPA’s interim final rule to delay oil and gas companies’ compliance deadlines for Biden-era methane rules, declaring that the agency’s efforts to delay the deadlines by roughly 18 months without public comment is a “clear violation of the law.” The groups filed an Aug. 1 petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, styled as Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) v. Lee Zeldin . It was filed the...

Michigan, Hawaii Seek To Dismiss DOJ’s Effort To Block Climate Suits

Michigan and Hawaii are urging federal courts to dismiss unusual lawsuits filed by the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) intended to block the states’ potential climate nuisance and fraud suits against oil majors, with the states warning that allowing the cases to continue would create dangerous precedents. For example, Michigan warns in a July 31 brief in United States v. Michigan in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan that DOJ’s suit is a “speculative and...

D.C. Circuit Denies Claim That HFC Law Violates Nondelegation Doctrine

A unanimous three-judge D.C. Circuit panel is rejecting a constitutional challenge to the 2020 law requiring EPA to phase down climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), concluding that the statute does not delegate legislative authority to the agency as a free-market legal group has argued. The court also disagrees with the New Civil Liberties Alliance lawyers representing HFC manufacturer Choice Refrigerants that a recent Supreme Court decision helps their case -- instead emphasizing that the high court has said Congress need not provide...

EPA Claims GHG Endangerment Repeal Retains Air Law Preemption Shield

EPA is claiming that repealing the agency’s 2009 greenhouse gas endangerment finding and related vehicle GHG limits would nevertheless preserve federal preemption of state vehicle GHG standards under the Clean Air Act (CAA) as well as federal common law claims related to GHGs. The agency’s arguments -- which could affect oil majors’ chief legal defense against a raft of over two dozen climate tort cases proceeding in state courts -- underscore a potential high stakes consequence for industry from EPA’s...

SEC Urges 8th Circuit To Decide Climate Rule Fate, Drawing APA Complaints

The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) is urging an appellate court to rule in litigation challenging Biden-era corporate climate disclosure requirements, though critics say the move aims to avoid time-consuming regulatory processes that would be required under an administrative repeal of the standards. In response to an inquiry from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, the Republican-led SEC says in a July 23 status report that it “does not intend to review or reconsider the rules at...

Bill would block D.C. climate suit against oil majors

House Republicans are releasing an appropriations bill that would block funds for the District of Columbia to continue its climate nuisance and fraud lawsuit against oil majors, prompting concern from environmentalists who say the language was included in the measure after a court ruled that D.C.’s lawsuit could advance to trial. The July 17 House Appropriations Committee’s Financial Service and General Government bill , introduced by Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), says: “None of the funds provided by this Act or...

D.C. Circuit Pauses Long-Pending Suit Over MY23-36 Vehicle GHG Limits

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is granting a request by fuels groups -- unopposed by EPA -- to pause a long-pending case over EPA’s model year 2023-2026 light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas standards, amid expectations the Trump EPA will roll back those standards as well as more stringent limits. The move in a July 18 order formally pauses litigation that has languished since the appellate court heard oral arguments in September 2023. “Private petitioners are...

DOJ Urges Maryland Supreme Court To Dismiss Baltimore Climate Case

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is urging the Maryland Supreme Court to uphold a lower state court ruling that dismissed Baltimore’s climate nuisance and fraud case against oil majors, arguing the suit is preempted by EPA’s Clean Air Act (CAA) authority to regulate greenhouse gases -- even though EPA appears poised to rescind such authority. DOJ details its arguments -- a return to the first Trump administration’s position on these cases and a reversal of the Biden administration’s stance --...

Observers Hedge On Effect Of High Court’s Fuels Sector Standing Ruling

Experts are hedging on whether the Supreme Court’s recent affirmation that fuel groups have standing to challenge an EPA preemption waiver for California vehicle standards will have significant implications for future environmental cases, even as youth plaintiffs are already citing the decision to claim standing in a high-profile climate suit. Observers suggest the high court’s ruling last month in Diamond Alternative Energy v. EPA makes clear that industry groups -- or others not directly regulated by an environmental requirement...

Free-Market Group Says High Court Ruling Boosts HFC Non-Delegation Case

Free-market attorneys representing a refrigerant maker are highlighting a recent Supreme Court ruling they believe supports their claim that Congress violated the nondelegation doctrine in a 2020 statute directing EPA to phase down climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Choice Refrigerants, in litigation pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, argues that the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act did not provide enough direction to EPA about how it must allocate a decreasing number of HFC allowances...

D.C. Circuit Seeks EPA Stance In Auto Case As 1st Circuit Hears NHTSA Suits

The D.C. Circuit is directing EPA to weigh in on whether the court should pause a longstanding dispute over the agency’s model year 2023-2026 light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas limits, following fuels groups’ calls for an abeyance given multiple signs that the Trump EPA will revisit the standards. A July 2 order in State of Texas, et al. v. EPA, et al. , seeks a response within 10 days. It comes as a multidistrict panel has consolidated separate litigation over fuel...

D.C. Circuit dismisses suit over GHG reporting deadlines

The D.C. Circuit has dismissed litigation over the EPA’s two-month extension of a deadline for emissions reporting under the agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), after the Department of Justice (DOJ) argued the suit was moot given the passage of the deadline and environmentalists declined to oppose the request. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a July 7 order dismissed Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) v. Lee Zeldin , a suit in which EDF had...

DOT Declines To Appeal EV Charger Grants Order, But Readies Guidance

The Department of Transportation (DOT) is declining to appeal a preliminary injunction unfreezing several states’ infrastructure law grants to build electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, even as Trump officials draw closer to issuing a draft guidance expected to outline updated requirements for new state plans to implement the program. The government’s move in State of Washington, et al. v. DOT -- a multi-state challenge to DOT’s halt of unobligated National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program funds and the department’s...

States, Groups Challenge NHTSA’s Initial Fuel Economy Rollback Rule

States and environmentalists are filing legal challenges to the National Highway Traffic Administration’s (NHTSA) “interpretive rule” that represents the agency’s first step toward rolling back Biden-era fuel economy standards, as the rule bars officials from any consideration of electric vehicles (EVs) in developing the standards. The June 20 suits in separate appellate courts signal immediate pushback by Democratic-led states and environmental groups to NHTSA’s launch of its deregulatory effort, with the interpretive rule issued without public comment. The details of...

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