ELR Citation: 50 ELR 20165
No(s). 20 Civ. 3058 (CM) (S.D.N.Y. Jul 8, 2020) (McMahon, J.)

A district court granted EPA's cross-motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit concerning the Agency's issuance of a temporary policy that scaled back enforcement efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Environmental justice, public health, and public interest groups petitioned EPA to issue an emergency rule requiring any entity that stopped complying with monitoring or reporting requirements under the policy to notify the Agency immediately and report when they returned to compliance, and requiring EPA to publish all such notifications and submissions online. They subsequently argued to the court that EPA had delayed unreasonably in responding to their petition in violation of the APA, and sought to order the Agency to respond as soon as possible. The court found no evidentiary support in the record for the groups' assertion that regulated entities would respond to the policy by suspending monitoring and reporting whether COVID-19 conditions impacted their operations or not, and that their members' uncertainty about exposure to excess pollution at facilities that suspended such requirements in response to the policy was not a cognizable injury sufficient to constitute injury-in-fact. Further, the groups failed to establish that their alleged injury was fairly traceable to EPA's purported unreasonable delay in responding to their petition rather than the unique circumstances presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The court therefore granted EPA's cross-motion for summary judgment.