Description: Challenge to RGGI in New York on grounds that state legislature did not authorize state participation.
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Thrun v. Cuomo
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 04/03/2014 Order Download Leave to appeal denied. The New York Court of Appeals denied a motion for leave to appeal the Appellate Division decision.
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Thrun v. Cuomo
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 12/05/2013 Memorandum Download Memorandum and order issued. The New York Appellate Division affirmed the dismissal on other grounds. The appellate court assumed without deciding that plaintiffs had standing, but ruled that the causes of action challenging the validity of RGGI regulations issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority were time barred because, as challenges to “quasi-legislative” acts, they could have been brought in an Article 78 proceeding despite their constitutional underpinnings, and were thus governed by the four-month statute of limitations for Article 78 proceedings. The claims therefore were made two and a half years too late. The appellate court further ruled that the challenges to then-Governor George Pataki’s signing of the RGGI memorandum of understanding (MOU) were moot because the MOU did not effectuate the RGGI program or New York’s participation in it, and undoing the MOU would not redress the claimed injuries. -
Thrun v. Cuomo
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 06/13/2012 Decision Download Decision and order issued dismissing case. A New York state court dismissed on standing grounds a lawsuit that sought to block the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The court held that plaintiffs could not show standing because their alleged harm was no different than that of the general public. Because plaintiffs failed to establish that as ratepayers they suffered an injury distinct from that of the general public, they could not assert standing on the basis of that alleged harm. The court further held that even if the plaintiffs could assert standing, the case would be dismissed on laches grounds given that the state implemented its regulations in 2008 and the lawsuit was not filed until 2011. 06/27/2011 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Three taxpayers in New York filed a lawsuit alleging that the State had no authority to enter into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) without authorizing legislation from the State legislature. The plaintiffs alleged that they had suffered economic damages in the form of higher electricity rates due to the program. The lawsuit alleged that New York’s participation in the program constituted a tax that could only be approved by the State legislature and that it was unconstitutional because it infringed on federal authority to regulate air pollution and transmission of electric power across state lines.