Description: Challenge to Colorado Renewable Energy Standard.
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Energy & Environment Legal Institute v. Epel
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 12/07/2015 Order List Download Certiorari denied. Supreme Court Declined to Review Decision Upholding Colorado Renewable Energy Standard. The Supreme Court denied a certiorari petition seeking review of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling upholding Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard. The Tenth Circuit ruled in July 2015 that the RES did not violate the dormant Commerce Clause. 10/09/2015 Petition for Writ of Certiorari Download Petition for writ of certiorari filed. Unsuccessful Challengers of Colorado Renewable Energy Standard Asked for Supreme Court Review. On October 9, 2015, the Energy & Environmental Legal Institute (EELI) filed a certiorari petition in the United States Supreme Court seeking review of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES). The Tenth Circuit held that the RES did not constitute impermissible extraterritorial regulation and did not violate the Constitution. EELI argued in its petition that the Tenth Circuit too narrowly interpreted Supreme Court precedent regarding the Constitution’s bar on state action regulating extraterritorial conduct. EELI said that the Tenth Circuit fell into the “conceptual trap” of pigeon-holing cases concerning extraterritorial conduct into the dormant Commerce Clause, when the jurisprudence on extraterritoriality “stems … from the structure of our system as a whole.” EELI also asserted that there was a circuit split on the issue of whether the prohibition of extraterritorial regulation of interstate commerce applied exclusively to price control or price affirmation statutes, and that the risks of states “exporting” their regulatory agendas nationwide warranted the Supreme Court’s exercise of supervisory powers. -
Energy & Environment Legal Institute v. Epel
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 07/13/2015 Opinion Download Opinion issued. Tenth Circuit Affirmed Colorado’s Renewable Energy Mandate. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Colorado’s renewable energy mandate did not violate the dormant Commerce Clause. The decision affirmed a ruling of the federal district court for the District of Colorado in a lawsuit brought by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (EELI), whose members include a fossil fuel producer. EELI appealed only one aspect of the district court’s decision—that the mandate did not impermissibly control extraterritorial conduct. The Tenth Circuit said that although fossil fuel producers will be hurt by the mandate, EELI “offers no story suggesting how Colorado’s mandate disproportionately harms out-of-state businesses,” and “it’s far from clear how the mandate might hurt out-of-state consumers either.” The Tenth Circuit concluded that this case did not fall within the narrow scope of the Supreme Court’s extraterritoriality precedent, which was applied only to price control or price affirmation regulation. The Tenth Circuit said that EELI’s reading risked “serious problems of overinclusion.” -
Energy & Environment Legal Institute v. Epel
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 05/09/2014 Order Download Order issued denying plaintiffs' early motion for summary judgment and granting defendants and intervenor-defendants' early motion for summary judgment. The federal district court for the District of Colorado ruled that the “Renewables Quota” of Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES) did not violate the dormant Commerce Clause. The Renewables Quota required that utilities obtain 30% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. The court found that plaintiffs had not made any effort to show that the Renewables Quota discriminated against out-of-state interests on its face or in purpose or effect. Moreover, the court rejected plaintiffs’ contentions that the Renewables Quota improperly regulated wholly out-of-state commerce. The court noted that the RES only affected commerce when an out-of-state electricity generator “freely chooses to do business with a Colorado utility” and that the RES did not impose conditions on the importation of electricity. The court also found that plaintiffs had failed to establish that the RES burdened interstate commerce for the purpose of the Pike balancing test. Plaintiffs announced they would appeal the district court’s judgment to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. 05/01/2014 Order Download Order issued granting in part and denying in part defendants' early motion for summary judgment on plaintiffs' lack of standing. In a challenge to Colorado's Renewable Energy Standard (RES), the federal district court for the District of Colorado ruled that the Energy and Environment Legal Institute—“a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of rational, free-market solutions to land, energy, and environmental challenges in the United States”—had standing to challenge the Renewables Quota, based on the lost sales and lost ability to compete of one of its members, a mining company that operated two coal mines in Wyoming. The court concluded, however, that neither the organization nor one of its individual members had standing to challenge two ancillary provisions of the RES. 08/30/2013 Motion for Summary Judgment Download Early motion for summary judgment filed by plaintiffs. 08/16/2011 Response Download Response filed by plaintiffs to defendants' motion to dismiss. 07/12/2011 Motion to Dismiss Download Motion to dismiss filed by defendants.