Litigation - Climate Extra

EPA Asks D.C. Circuit To Pause Suits Over Major HFC Control Measures

EPA is asking the D.C. Circuit to pause two industry challenges to Biden-era rules to implement key elements of the 2020 control law for hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that includes a sharp phase down of the climate-warming chemicals, as Trump administration officials review the regulations. At issue is a rule that allocates allowances under EPA’s HFC phasedown program -- with one manufacturer arguing a key element of the 2020 statute violates the Constitution’s “non-delegation” doctrine -- as well as another rule in...

Industry Groups Seek To Pause Suits Against Multiple EPA Vehicle Rules

Industry groups are asking an appellate court to suspend suits against three EPA vehicle emissions regulations -- its multi-pollutant standards for model year 2027 and later passenger vehicles, MY23-26 auto greenhouse gas standards, and heavy truck GHG standards -- given Trump administration pledges to reconsider EPA’s vehicle programs. In addition, EPA itself is also asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to pause litigation over the Biden administration’s methane standards for oil and gas equipment...

Citing EPA Power, States Sue To Block New York Climate Superfund Law

A coalition of Republican-led states is filing a constitutional challenge to New York’s climate change “superfund” law that will require fossil fuel companies to pay billions of dollars to address climate-related damages, with the states asserting the measure is preempted by EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases. “We’re not going to allow states like New York to usurp the federal government, who has the sole authority to regulate emissions that are being targeted in the superfund bill,” argued West Virginia...

Signaling Rollback, DOJ Asks D.C. Circuit To Pause Utility GHG Case

The Justice Department (DOJ) is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to pause litigation over the Biden EPA’s power plant greenhouse gas standards so that recently installed Trump administration officials at the agency can assess the regulation ahead of expected moves to scale it back, even though the court heard arguments in the case two months ago. “To provide new leadership with sufficient time to familiarize themselves with these issues and determine how they...

Another State Court Dismisses Climate Fraud Suit Targeting Oil Industry

A state court is dismissing New Jersey’s climate nuisance and fraud suit against oil majors, joining Maryland, Delaware and New York courts and prompting industry to call for an end to all similar suits because the rulings make it “clear that state law cannot operate in areas of ‘uniquely federal interests.’” The Feb. 5 decision in Platkin, et al. v. Exxon Mobil, et al. , from Judge Douglas Hurd of New Jersey Superior Court says: “This court agrees with Defendants...

Lawsuit Cites ‘Cumulative’ Harms To Halt BLM Drilling Permits In California

Environmentalists’ latest federal lawsuit to block oil and gas drilling on public land in central California alleges that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is failing to properly assess cumulative environmental harms, including air and climate pollution increases, from multiple drilling projects for which the bureau is approving permits. “We’re going back to court for what are now becoming routine violations and disregard of our country’s laws and California’s Valley communities,” argued Michelle Ghafar, an Earthjustice attorney who is representing...

Judge Rejects Two Claims In Suit Over California Climate Disclosure Laws

A federal judge is dismissing two of three claims in industry groups’ constitutional facial challenge to California’s 2023 laws requiring large companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risks, meaning the groups can now only advance their allegations that the laws violate free speech protections. In a Feb. 3 order , Judge Otis Wright, II, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismisses the industry groups’ claims that the laws -- SB 253...

After Delay, Newsom Poised To Sign Bill Providing $25 Million To Fight Trump

Following an extended delay by the California state Assembly, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is poised this week to sign into law just-approved legislation authorizing $25 million for his administration to fight various Trump administration policies, including over climate change and environmental protection. “Expect the governor to take action this week once the legislation lands on his desk,” a Newsom spokesperson told Inside EPA on Feb. 4. But when exactly Newsom will enact the measure is unclear as he delayed...

5th Circuit Panel Appears Poised To Toss CCS Primacy Suit On Standing

A panel of appellate judges during Feb. 4 oral arguments seemed unconvinced that environmentalists have standing to challenge EPA’s rule granting Louisiana officials primary authority over Class VI carbon storage permits, previewing a decision that could make it difficult for critics to challenge numerous other state “primacy” rules. The arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, et al. v. EPA also underscored ongoing debates about the state’s liability...

DOJ Seeks To Pause Long-Pending Suit Over Biden Fuel Economy Rule

The Trump administration is urging the D.C. Circuit to pause long-pending litigation over the Biden administration’s first round of vehicle fuel economy requirements so that it can reconsider the measure, a move that likely previews a similar strategy for EPA’s auto greenhouse gas standards. An abeyance in the consolidated litigation, known as Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) v. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) , “will conserve party and judicial resources and promote the efficient and orderly disposition of this...

Bill Lets Climate Disaster Victims, Insurance Firms Sue Energy Companies

California lawmakers are introducing legislation that would allow victims of climate change-related disasters, as well as insurance firms, sue oil and gas companies to collect for damages they have incurred, in the wake of the catastrophic fires in Los Angeles County. “Californians are paying a devastating price for the climate crisis, as escalating disasters destroy entire communities and drive insurance costs through the roof,” said Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) in a Jan. 27 press release announcing his bill, SB...

Maryland Judge Dismisses Two Nuisance Suits, Citing Baltimore Decision

A Maryland state judge is dismissing two climate nuisance and fraud cases that a city and county filed against the oil industry, with the judge saying he is “now persuaded that the logic of the disposition and authorities” -- cited by a different Maryland judge in dismissing Baltimore’s nuisance case last year -- is correct. Judge Steven Platt of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County in a Jan. 23 opinion in City of Annapolis v. BP PLC, et al...

Industry Says Trump’s EJ Order Revocation Should Reinstate LNG Approval

A liquefied natural gas (LNG) developer in a new letter to the D.C. Circuit is arguing that President Donald Trump’s revocation of a landmark environmental justice (EJ) executive order (EO) issued three decades ago scraps the basis of a three-judge panel’s decision vacating federal approval of its Texas LNG export project. The developer, Rio Grande LNG, makes the argument in a Jan. 23 letter to the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, as part of its...

States Seek To Intervene To Defend EPA Waivers For CARB ZEV, Truck Rules

California and 15 other states are seeking to intervene in federal litigation to defend the Biden EPA’s approval of two Clean Air Act preemption waivers that authorize enforcement of the Golden State’s Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) and heavy-duty truck emissions regulations, which are being challenged by an industry group. “Any attempt to undermine California’s Clean Air Act waivers puts our state at risk of falling further behind in our fight against climate change and environmental harm,” California Attorney...

D.C. Circuit Declines To Reverse Panel’s Vacatur Of FERC Pipeline Approval

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is rejecting requests to overturn a three-judge panel’s ruling that vacated the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) approval of a natural gas pipeline, upholding a decision that required FERC to determine if the project’s greenhouse gases are “significant.” The court in two Jan. 21 per curiam orders in New Jersey Conservation Foundation, et al. v. FERC, et al. , rejected Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co.’s petition for rehearing...

Industry, States Challenge EPA Methane Fee Rule, Amid Possible Hill Repeal

A coalition of oil and gas groups, as well as nearly two dozen Republican-led states, are launching legal challenges to EPA’s rule to implement the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) methane emissions fee, preserving one venue to oppose the policy even as congressional Republicans are hoping to repeal the fee in the coming months. Most recently, 23 states led by Texas filed suit over the rule Jan. 16 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a...

Ahead Of Trump, Judges Offer Clues On EPA Rule Governing State Air Plans

Oral arguments over the Biden EPA’s implementing rules for section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act appeared to offer clues about how the incoming Trump administration might rewrite the measure as expected, with one GOP-appointed judge voicing support for narrow interpretations of agency authority to oversee state plans to meet federal climate rules. The Jan. 17 oral arguments in West Virginia, et al. v. EPA -- before a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District...

Biden EPA Details 11th-Hour Defense Of ‘Phase 3’ Heavy-Truck GHG Rule

The Biden administration is seeking to formalize its legal defense of EPA’s “phase 3” greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty trucks, including the rule’s partial reliance on vehicles with electric powertrains, even as the incoming Trump administration is expected to ask to pause the litigation to reassess the policy. “The ‘motor vehicles’ regulated by the [Clean Air Act] are defined by their function, not their power source. They can be powered by diesel, electricity, or any other energy source,” EPA says...

Court dismisses New York climate case as justices mull GOP petition

A New York state judge is dismissing a climate nuisance and fraud suit filed by New York City against oil majors, the third state court to effectively reject such a case, while the Supreme Court is slated to discuss whether to accept a petition by Republican states urging it to scrap the Democratic-led state nuisance and fraud suits. The latest maneuvering in the climate cases brought against the oil industry by dozens of state and municipal governments comes days after...

Supreme Court Again Rebuffs Oil Industry Effort To Dismiss Climate Cases

The Supreme Court is again denying a major effort by the oil industry to derail dozens of state and local climate nuisance and fraud cases that are proceeding in state courts, rejecting industry petitions to overrule a Hawaii Supreme Court decision to allow a suit brought by Honolulu officials to proceed. The court in a brief Jan. 13 order denied petitions for a writ of certiorari in Sunoco LP, et al. v. Honolulu and Shell PLC, et al....

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