Description: Challenge brought by states to challenge executive order that required development and application of a social cost of carbon.
-
Missouri v. Biden
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 01/27/2023 Order Download Petition for rehearing en banc denied. Eighth Circuit Declined to Revisit Dismissal of States’ Challenge to Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases Estimates. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing en banc of a panel decision affirming the dismissal of a challenge brought by Missouri and other states to the Biden administration’s social cost of greenhouse gases estimates. The panel found that the states did not allege an injury that was fairly traceable to the estimates. 01/13/2023 Response Download Response to petition for rehearing en banc filed. 12/05/2022 Petition for Rehearing Download Petition for rehearing en banc filed. Rehearing Sought on Dismissal of Challenge to Biden Administration’s Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases. Missouri and 12 other states petitioned the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals for rehearing en banc of its decision affirming the dismissal of a challenge to the Biden administration’s social cost of greenhouse gas estimates. The states argued that the dismissal on standing grounds was inconsistent with Eighth Circuit precedent on standing for procedural challenges to substantive rules made without notice and comment. The states also contended that the panel’s decision raised “exceptionally important questions” regarding executive authority to exercise legislative rulemaking power. 10/21/2022 Opinion Download Dismissal affirmed. Eighth Circuit Said States Lacked Standing to Challenge Social Cost of Greenhouse Gas Estimates. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s ruling that Missouri and other states did not have standing to challenge President Biden’s executive order directing federal agencies to use estimates of the social costs of greenhouse gas emissions (SC-GHG) to analyze the costs and benefits of agency actions. The Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (IWG) published interim SC-GHG estimates in February 2021; the states argued that the executive order’s directive and the estimates violated separation of powers principles as well as statutes such as the Clean Air Act and Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The Eighth Circuit found that the states did not allege an injury in fact that was fairly traceable to the SC-GHG estimates. The court concluded that the states’ alleged economic injuries, including increased costs of regulated goods and services and loss of tax revenues from regulated economic activity, would not result from the interim SC-GHG estimates themselves but from hypothetical future federal action. The court also rejected the contention that the interim estimates caused a “sovereign” injury by intruding on states’ role as regulators. In addition, the Eighth Circuit concluded that the states failed to allege a procedural injury based on the IWG’s failure to follow the APA’s notice-and-comment procedures when it published the interim estimates. 03/16/2022 Reply Download Reply brief filed by defendants. 02/17/2022 Brief Download Brief filed by appellees. 12/03/2021 Amicus Brief Download Brief filed by amicus curiae Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow in support of appellants and reversal. 12/03/2021 Brief Download Brief filed by appellants. -
Missouri v. Biden
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 09/01/2021 Notice of Appeal Download Notice of appeal filed by plaintiff states. 08/31/2021 Memorandum and Order Download Motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction granted and motion for preliminary injunction denied as moot. Federal Court in Missouri Dismissed States’ Challenges to Biden Actions on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases. The federal district court for the Eastern District of Missouri held that Missouri and 12 other states lacked standing for their claims challenging executive actions related to establishing a social cost of greenhouse gas emissions. The court also held that these claims were not ripe. The court found that due to the “inherently speculative nature” of their alleged harm, the plaintiff states failed to establish any of the three elements of standing: injury in fact, causation, or redressability. The court was not persuaded that the states were “entitled to special solicitude” that would excuse them from meeting these standing requirements, or that their inability to file comments on interim estimates for the social cost of greenhouse gases was a “procedural injury” that afforded them standing. With respect to ripeness, the court found that any impact of the executive actions could not be felt immediately and that the states would have “ample opportunity to bring legal challenges to particular regulations” that allegedly inflicted an imminent, concrete, and particularized injury. The states appealed the dismissal of the case. 07/21/2021 Reply Download Reply memorandum filed by defendants in support of motion to dismiss. 07/02/2021 Opposition Download Plaintiffs filed combined reply in support of their motion for a preliminary injunction and opposition to defendants' motion to dismiss. 06/23/2021 Amicus Brief Download Proposed amicus curiae brief filed by Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow in support of plaintiffs. 06/04/2021 Memorandum of Law Download Memorandum of law filed by defendants in support of motion to dismiss and in opposition to motion for preliminary injunction. Biden Administration Asked Missouri Federal Court to Dismiss States’ Challenge to Actions on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases. Federal defendants filed a motion to dismiss in the lawsuit brought by Missouri and other states to challenge the Interim Values for the Social Cost of Carbon, Methane, and Nitrous Oxide, which were released in response to a directive in President Biden’s Executive Order 13990, which the states also challenge. The defendants argued that the states did not have standing because any possibility of an injury caused by the challenged actions was speculative and any injury would be the result of “future, hypothetical agency actions,” not the actions challenged in this case. The defendants also contended the alleged injuries were not redressable. In addition, the defendants argued that the claims were not ripe, that the states lacked a cause of action, and that their claims were meritless. The defendants also responded to the states’ motion for a preliminary injunction, arguing that they had failed to show imminent, irreparable harm, that a preliminary injunction would disserve the public interest, and that any relief should be limited to declaring the Interim Values non-binding. 05/14/2021 Amicus Motion Download Unopposed motion for leave to file amicus curiae brief filed by Texas Public Policy Foundation et al. in support of plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction. 05/03/2021 Motion Download Memorandum filed by plaintiffs in support of motion for preliminary injunction. States Sought to Block Use of Interim Values for Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases. Missouri and 12 other states filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in the federal district court for the Eastern District of Missouri seeking to block the Biden administration from using the social cost of greenhouse gases released in February 2021 by the Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases. The Working Group was created by President Biden’s Executive Order 13990, which also directed the Working Group to issue an interim social cost of greenhouse gases for use by federal agencies in their rulemaking and other agency actions until final values are issued. The states argued they were likely to succeed on their separation of powers and Administrative Procedure Act claims. They also argued that use of the interim values for social cost of carbon would irreparably injure them, including by depriving them of the opportunity to participate in notice-and-comment rulemaking and by injuring their sovereign interests by compelling them to use the social cost of greenhouse gases in their implementation of cooperative-federalism programs. 03/26/2021 Complaint Download First amended complaint filed. 03/08/2021 Complaint Download Complaint filed. States Challenged Executive Order on Social Cost of Carbon. Thirteen states filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the Eastern District of Missouri asserting that the portion of President Biden’s Executive Order 13990 that prescribed steps for development and application of the social cost of carbon violated separation of powers, as did the interim values for the social cost of carbon, methane, and nitrous oxide that the order directed the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases to develop. The states also asserted that the executive order and the interim values violated agency statutes such as the Clean Air Act that the states alleged conferred authorities on specific federal agencies that the executive order unlawfully arrogated to the Working Group. The states also alleged procedural and substantive violations of the Administrative Procedure Act by the Working Group.