The First Circuit again affirmed a district court order that remanded to state court Rhode Island's climate change lawsuit against oil companies. The district court concluded that none of the companies' grounds for removal—federal officer, federal question, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, admir...
In an emergency order, the U.S. Supreme Court denied several states' application to vacate the Fifth Circuit's stay of a district court ruling that had enjoined federal agencies from implementing interim estimates on the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions.
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On February 28, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for the landmark West Virginia v. EPA case, involving the scope of powers delegated to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Clean Air Act. The Court’s decision will affect administrative law, and could have major consequences for environmental law, particularly the Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and take action on climate change.
At this point in time, climate change pervades every aspect of contemporary life. It is a persistent current through our lives and, increasingly, throughout the law. One would be hard-pressed to find any area of law that has not or will not soon be touched by climate change. The onset of climate change has prompted decades worth of deep and wide efforts to reshape law and policy. Yet, alongside this development, there is also erosion.
The European Union, China, California, and a number of U.S. states in the Northeast are currently using emissions trading as part of their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the popularity of emissions trading as a policy tool co-exists with a well-established, and increasingly politically powerful, set of critiques of it in the United States. These critiques come from environmental justice advocates as well as some academics and other observers.
The Ninth Circuit again affirmed a district court order that remanded to state court several California counties' and cities' lawsuit against oil and gas companies alleging state law claims arising from global warming. The district court concluded that none of the companies' grounds for removal—fe...
The Fourth Circuit affirmed a district court order that remanded to state court the city of Baltimore's climate change lawsuit against oil companies. The city alleged it sustained climate change-related injuries, including an increase in sea levels, storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts, and extreme p...
A district court denied environmental groups' motion for partial summary judgment in a CAA citizen suit brought against a steel company concerning hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide emissions at its production facilities in Pennsylvania. The groups argued the company repeatedly violated the CAA, th...
Efforts to hold major greenhouse gas emitters accountable for the harms caused by global climate change have been consistently frustrated at the procedural stages of litigation in U.S. federal courts. This Article explores using a combination of class action mechanisms to engage with these threshold barriers and hold carbon-major corporations responsible for climate impacts.
The Fifth Circuit granted the Biden Administration's motion to stay a district court ruling enjoining federal agencies from implementing interim estimates on the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions. States had argued the president lacked authority to promulgate and enforce the estimates; that th...