Description: Lawsuit challenging interim estimates for the social cost of greenhouse gases released by the Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases.
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Louisiana v. Biden
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 05/26/2022 Order List Download Application to vacate stay denied. Supreme Court Declined to Vacate Stay of District Court Injunction on Use of Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases. In a single-sentence order, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an application by Louisiana and nine other states to vacate the Fifth Circuit’s stay of a district court’s preliminary injunction barring federal agencies from using the work product of the Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases and from using any social cost of greenhouse gases estimates based on the global effects of greenhouse gases. The district court also ordered the federal defendants to return to using 2003 guidance. Briefing on the merits of the preliminary injunction appeal is underway in the Fifth Circuit, with Louisiana and the other nine states’ brief due on June 16, 2022. 05/20/2022 Reply Download Reply filed in support of application to vacate stay. 05/09/2022 Amicus Brief Download Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform filed motion for leave to file and brief as amicus curiae in support of applicants. 05/09/2022 Opposition Download Federal government filed response in opposition to application to vacate the stay pending appeal issued by the Fifth Circuit. 05/02/2022 Amicus Brief Download Missouri and nine other states filed motion for leave to file and amici curiae brief in support of petitioners' application. 04/27/2022 Application Download Application filed to vacate Fifth Circuit's stay order. States Sought Relief from Supreme Court. The states submitted an application to vacate the stay to Justice Alito. They argued that the Fifth Circuit’s stay order allowed “an agency created out of whole cloth issue what might be the most significant rule in American history” without statutory authority, adherence to notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures, or pre-enforcement judicial review, and the states would suffer irreparable harm because use of the IWG’s SC-GHG estimates would “increase States’ energy costs, decrease their tax revenues, compound their burdens in cooperative federalism programs, threaten their coastline restoration and protection projects, divest them of administrative process and consultation rights, and impose economic harms on their citizens that States have a parens patriae right to protect.” Justice Alito requested that the federal government respond to the application by May 9. -
Louisiana v. Biden
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 07/18/2022 Reply Download Reply brief filed by appellants. 06/16/2022 Brief Download Appellees' brief filed. 05/10/2022 Amicus Brief Download Brief filed by amicus curiae Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law in support of defendants-appellants. 05/10/2022 Amicus Brief Download Brief filed by amicus curiae Public Citizen in support of defendants-appellants and vacatur. 05/10/2022 Amicus Brief Download Brief filed by New York and 11 other states as amici curiae supporting appellants. 05/03/2022 Brief Download Appellants' brief filed. 04/14/2022 Order Download Petition for rehearing en banc denied. Fifth Circuit Denied Rehearing on Stay of Preliminary Injunction Barring Use of Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases. On April 14, 2022, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing en banc of its order staying a district court order that enjoined federal agencies from relying on the work product of the Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (IWG) and from using any social cost of greenhouse gases (SC-GHG) estimates based on the global effects of greenhouse gases. The Fifth Circuit had concluded that the states were unlikely to succeed on the merits of their lawsuit because they lacked standing. 03/30/2022 Petition for Rehearing Download Petition for rehearing en banc filed by plaintiffs-appellees. The plaintiff states filed a petition for rehearing en banc of the Fifth Circuit's decision granting the federal defendants' motion for a stay of the preliminary injunction pending appeal, arguing that the Fifth Circuit did not afford “special solicitude” to the states that was “fundamental” to the Fifth Circuit’s standing precedents and ignored harms to the states in their sovereign capacity. The states also contended that the alleged harm to the federal defendants was “amorphous.” 03/16/2022 Opinion Download Motion to stay the preliminary injunction pending appeal granted. Fifth Circuit Stayed Preliminary Injunction Barring Federal Agency Reliance on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases Estimates. On March 16, 2022, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Biden administration’s motion for a stay pending appeal of a district court’s preliminary injunction barring federal agencies from relying on the work product of the Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (IWG) and from using any social cost of greenhouse gases (SC-GHG) estimates based on the global effects of greenhouse gases. The district court had denied the federal defendants’ motion for a stay pending appeal a week earlier. The Fifth Circuit concluded that the federal defendants were likely to succeed on the merits because the plaintiff states, led by Louisiana, lacked standing. The court found that their alleged injury of “increased regulatory burdens” from consideration of the SC-GHG was “merely hypothetical” and a “generalized grievance.” In addition, the Fifth Circuit found that the plaintiff states did not meet their burden on the causation and redressability elements of standing. The appellate court further concluded that the federal defendants had shown they would be irreparably harmed absent a stay because the district court’s directives prevented or delayed federal agencies “in considering SC-GHG in the manner the current administration has prioritized within the bounds of applicable law” and because the district court’s order appeared to go beyond federal courts’ authority by requiring the Biden administration to comply with prior administrations’ policies. In addition, the Fifth Circuit concluded that a stay of the preliminary injunction would impose “minimal injury” on the plaintiff states. 03/14/2022 Reply Download Reply filed by federal defendants-appellants in support of emergency motion for stay of preliminary injunction pending appeal. 03/11/2022 Brief Download Brief filed by plaintiffs-appellees in opposition to motion to stay. 03/01/2022 Motion Download Emergency motion for stay pending appeal filed by defendants-appellants. -
Louisiana v. Biden
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 03/10/2022 Notice Download Defendants filed notice regarding injunction compliance. 03/09/2022 Order Download Defendants' motion for stay pending appeal denied. 03/04/2022 Opposition Download Opposition to motion for stay filed by plaintiff states. 02/19/2022 Declaration Download Declaration filed in support of defendants' motion for a stay pending appeal. 02/19/2022 Motion Download Motion for a stay of preliminary injunction ruling pending appeal filed by defendants. 02/19/2022 Notice of Appeal Download Notice of appeal of preliminary injunction ruling filed by defendants. 02/11/2022 Order Download Motion for preliminary injunction granted. 02/11/2022 Ruling Download Motion for preliminary injunction granted. Louisiana Federal Court Enjoined Biden Administration from Using Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases Estimates. The federal district court for the Western District of Louisiana granted a motion by Louisiana and nine other states for a preliminary injunction enjoining federal agencies from relying on the work product of the Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (IWG) and from using any social cost of greenhouse gases (SC-GHG) estimates based on the global effects of greenhouse gases. The court ordered the federal defendants to return to using the 2003 Circular A-4 guidance when conducting regulatory analysis, including the guidance’s recommended default discount rates of 3 and 7 percent. President Biden established the IWG in Executive Order 13990 after the Trump administration disbanded the Obama-era Interagency Working Group in 2017. The district court found that the plaintiff states had standing to bring their suit because mandatory implementation of the SC-GHG estimates would impose new obligations and increase regulatory burdens on them in cooperative federalism programs such as state implementation plans under the Clean Air Act. The court further found that these injuries were actual and imminent, that the alleged injuries were traceable to Executive Order 13990 and the SC-GHG estimates, and that a return to Circular A-4 would redress the injuries. The court also found that the SC-GHG estimates constituted final agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act, that the states’ interests fell within the “zone of interests” of the APA and other statutes under which they made claims, and that there was no statutory intent to preclude judicial review. On the merits of the preliminary injunction motion, the court found that the plaintiff states were likely to succeed on the merits. First, the court found that Executive Order 13990 exceeded the President’s authority by mandating consideration of global effects in contravention of congressional intent regarding legislative rulemaking and by promulgating “fundamentally transformative legislative rules” in violation of the major questions doctrine. In addition, the court found that the SC-GHG estimates were promulgated in violation of the APA’s notice and comment requirements and that the estimates were arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law. The court also found that the plaintiff states’ alleged harms—including harm to their economies and revenues from more stringent regulation, harm from additional duties to implement cooperative federalism programs, and harm from divestment of procedural rights—were sufficient to support injunctive relief, that the balance of injuries weighed in their favor, and that the public interest and balance of equities weighed in favor of an injunction. 01/28/2022 Motion Download Defendants filed motion for leave to file response. 01/21/2022 Brief Download Supplemental brief filed by defendants. 09/10/2021 Reply Download Reply memorandum filed in support of motion for preliminary injunction. 09/01/2021 Opposition Download Defendants filed opposition to plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction. 07/29/2021 Motion Download Motion for preliminary injunction filed. States Moved for Preliminary Injunction in Social Cost of Carbon Lawsuit in Louisiana. Louisiana and the nine other states challenging the Biden administration’s social cost of greenhouse gases estimates in the federal district court for the Western District of Louisiana filed a motion for a preliminary injunction. The states argued that they were likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that promulgation of the estimates was beyond the authority of President Biden and the Interagency Working Group that released the estimates and that the estimates violated the Administrative Procedure Act, as well as the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, the Clean Air Act, NEPA, the Mineral Leasing Act, and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. The states also contended that the estimates would cause irreparable harm to their sovereign, proprietary, and parens patriae interests. 07/27/2021 Amicus Brief Download Motion for leave to file as amicus curiae filed in support of plaintiffs by Landmark Legal Foundation. Landmark Legal Foundation filed a motion for leave to file an amicus brief in support of the preliminary injunction motion. The brief focuses on separation of powers and Administrative Procedure Act issues. 07/21/2021 Opposition Download Memorandum filed in opposition to defendants' motion to dismiss. 06/28/2021 Motion to Dismiss Download Memorandum in support of motion to dismiss filed by defendants. 04/22/2021 Complaint Download Complaint filed. More States Challenged Interim Estimates for Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases. In a lawsuit filed in the federal district court for the Western District of Louisiana, Louisiana and nine other states asked the court to hold that interim estimates for the social cost of greenhouse gases released by the Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases in February 2021 are invalid, arbitrary and capricious, and contrary to law, and to bar federal agencies from using the interim estimates. The states asserted counts under the Administrative Procedure Act and of ultra vires action. The allegations include that the interim estimates contravene federal statutes—the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, the Clean Air Act, NEPA, the Mineral Leasing Act, and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act—by directing agencies to consider global effects of greenhouse gases. The states also alleged that no statute authorized a global-effects measure or discount rates that deviated from “the standard 3 percent and 7 percent.” They contended the interim estimates ignored positive externalities of energy production, and that the interim estimates were substantive rules that required notice and comment.