New York v. EPA August 25th, 2008
Date: August 25th, 2008
Topic: Climate Change Mitigation
Type: Lawsuit vs. Federal Government
Jurisdiction: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington
Citation: New York v. EPA, No. 08-1279 (D.C. Cir. 2008), consolidated with other cases in American Petroleum Institute, et al. v. EPA, No. 08-1277 (D.C. Cir. 2008).
On August 25, 2008, twelve states brought suit against EPA in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for failing to adopt greenhouse gas emission standards regulating oil refineries. The states claim that the Clean Air Act requires EPA to adopt New Source Performance Standards which would regulate global warming pollution emitted from the refineries. The parties eventually reached a settlement in which EPA agreed to issue greenhouse gas emission standards for this source category. The parties agreed to hold the case in abeyance pending EPA’s issuance of the rules.
As of early 2017, EPA had not yet issued greenhouse gas emission standards for petroleum refineries. In February 2017, EPA submitted a status report to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals explaining the progress that it had made in responding to various issues raised in the consolidated cases of American Petroleum Institute, et al. v. EPA and requesting that the cases continue to be held in abeyance. Notably, EPA did not mention anything about the settlement agreement or its progress on issuing greenhouse gas emission standards in that status report.