Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit upheld four EPA rulemakings governing greenhouse gases. EPA issued the rules following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), in which the Court clarified that greenhouse gases meet the definition of an air pollutant under the CAA. Petit...
Thrun v. Cuomo
A New York court dismissed individuals' lawsuit challenging the legality of New York's participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional cap-and-trade plan for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The individuals claimed they had standing because, as electric utility ratepaye...
Association of Irritated Residents v. California Air Resources Board
A California appellate court held that the California Air Resources Board's (CARB's) climate change scoping plan, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, complies with the state's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. The Global Solutions Warming Act requires CARB to ...
Natural Resources Defense Council v. United States Food & Drug Administration
A district court held that the FDA violated the APA and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) when it denied two petitions requesting that it withdraw approval of some uses of certain classes of antibiotics in food-producing animals. The petitions, submitted by environmental groups in 1999 and...
Alec L. v. Jackson
A district court dismissed a lawsuit filed by nongovernmental organizations and a group of minors claiming that six federal agencies violated their fiduciary duties to preserve and protect the atmosphere as a commonly shared public trust resource under the public trust doctrine. The public trust...
AES Corp. v. Steadfast Insurance Co.
The Virginia Supreme Court, upon rehearing a case, once again held that under Virginia law, an insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify an energy company in an underlying lawsuit brought by a native Alaskan village for damages allegedly caused by global warming through the emission of greenhou...