{"id":1709,"date":"2012-10-09T12:18:45","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T17:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=1709"},"modified":"2012-10-09T12:18:45","modified_gmt":"2012-10-09T17:18:45","slug":"updates-to-climate-case-chart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/10\/09\/updates-to-climate-case-chart\/","title":{"rendered":"Updates to Climate Case Chart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>New updates from October to the Center for Climate Change Law and Arnold &amp; Porter <strong>Climate Case Chart<\/strong>.\u00a0 Find the complete chart <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/web.law.columbia.edu\/climate-change\/resources\/us-climate-change-litigation-chart\">here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FEATURED DECISION\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp.<\/strong> (9th Cir. Sept. 21, 2012):\u00a0 added to the \u201ccommon law claims\u201d slide.\u00a0 The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit by Inupiat Native Alaskans seeking to recover money damages from a number of energy companies for GHG emissions from the companies\u2019 products that plaintiffs alleged eroded sea ice where the village is located.\u00a0 The appeals court held that plaintiffs could not sue under a theory of public nuisance given that it had been displaced by the Clean Air Act.\u00a0 The district court had dismissed the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, holding that the question of how best to address climate change is a political question not appropriate for a federal trial court to decide.\u00a0 The court also held that the plaintiffs could not demonstrate that the companies had caused them injury.\u00a0 The lawsuit alleged that as a result of climate change, the Arctic sea ice that protects the Kivalina coast from storms has been diminished and that resulting erosion will require relocation of the residents at a cost of between $95 and $400 million.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DECISIONS AND SETTLEMENTS\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Aranow v. State of Minnesota<\/strong> (Minn. Ct. of Appeals Oct. 1, 2012):\u00a0 added to the \u201ccommon law claims\u201d under the \u201cpublic trust doctrine\u201d subsection.\u00a0 Our Children\u2019s Trust, an environmental group, filed dozens of lawsuits in federal court and several states asserting that the federal government and state governments have an obligation under the public trust doctrine to regulate GHG emissions.\u00a0 In Minnesota, the group filed a lawsuit against the governor and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, which moved to dismiss.\u00a0 A state trial court granted the motion, holding first that the governor was not a proper party because he had no legislative authority to implement the policies sought by the plaintiff.\u00a0 Turning to the merits, the court held that that the public trust doctrine only applies to navigable waters, not the atmosphere.\u00a0 In addition, the court held that the plaintiff had no viable claim under the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act given that he had not given the requisite notice and had not sued on behalf of the state, as the statute required.\u00a0 On appeal, a state appellate court affirmed the decision, agreeing with the lower court that the doctrine only applied to navigable waters and did not apply to the atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p><strong>American Tradition Institute v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia<\/strong> (Va. Cir. Ct. Sept. 17, 2012):\u00a0 added to the \u201cclimate change protestors and scientists\u201d slide.\u00a0 A conservative legal foundation filed a lawsuit under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act seeking documents related to the work of former professor Michael Mann, who was involved in the so-called \u201cclimategate\u201d email controversy.\u00a0 In a decision from the bench, the court held that the email correspondence was exempt from disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.\u00a0 In particular, the court held that although the emails qualified as public records, they were exempt from disclosure under an exclusion concerning information produced by facility or staff of public institutions of higher education as a result of study or research on medical, scientific, technical or scholarly issues where such data has not been publicly released.<\/p>\n<p><strong>United States v. DeChristopher<\/strong> (10th Cir. Sept. 14, 2012):\u00a0 added to the \u201cclimate change protestors and scientists\u201d slide.\u00a0\u00a0 An individual was indicted for submitting several bids for oil and gas drilling leases on federal land that he did not intend to pay for.\u00a0 He argued that he did so to prevent the leases from being used in a way that would\u00a0 worsen the effects of climate change.\u00a0 After determining that the individual was not allowed to present the \u201cnecessity defense\u201d in explaining his actions, the court sentenced him to 24 months in prison and three years of supervised release.\u00a0 On appeal, the 10th Circuit upheld the conviction, holding that the evidence was sufficient to sustain the conviction and that the district court did not err in disallowing the individual from presenting the necessity defense, holding that the first prong, that there was no legal alternative to violating the law, was not present given that the individual could have taken other steps, such as filing a lawsuit to stop the issuance of the leases.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NEW CASES, MOTIONS AND NOTICES \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>American Petroleum Institute v. EPA<\/strong> (D.C. Cir. Sept. 18, 2012):\u00a0 added to the \u201cchallenges to federal action\u201d slide.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A coalition of industry groups filed a lawsuit challenging EPA\u2019s 2012 cellulosic ethanol requirements set under the renewable fuel program.\u00a0 The petitioners allege that the agency\u2019s projections for cellulosic biofuels are unrealistic, as they require refiners to blend 8.65 million gallons of such fuel into the national gasoline supply this year even though only a little over 20,000 gallons have thus far been produced.\u00a0 Refiners will be required to pay penalties for not purchasing the biofuel even if it is not commercially viable.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Luminant Generation Co. LLC v. EPA<\/strong> (5th Cir., filed Sept. 11, 2012):\u00a0 added to the \u201cchallenges to coal-fired power plants\u201d slide.\u00a0 The owner of two power plants in Texas filed a petition with the Fifth Circuit seeking a review of an EPA finding that the power plants violated Texas\u2019s clean air plan.\u00a0 EPA\u2019s review alleged that the company modified the two plants without obtaining appropriate permits under the Texas Title V permit process.\u00a0 EPA also alleged that the company failed to use best available control technology at the plants and that its actions resulted in significant emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides at the two facilities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>American Petroleum Institute v. EPA<\/strong> (D.C. Cir. Sept. 10, 2012):\u00a0 added to the \u201cchallenges to federal action\u201d slide.\u00a0 A coalition of industry groups filed a lawsuit challenging an EPA rule that maintains the existing GHG emissions permitting thresholds concerning the agency\u2019s tailoring rule, which limits GHG permitting to the largest industrial sources.\u00a0 On July 12, EPA issued the third step of the tailoring rule, retaining the existing permitting thresholds of Title V and prevention of significant deterioration emissions permits.\u00a0 New facilities that emit 100,000 tons per year of carbon-dioxide equivalent and existing facilities that increase their emissions by 75,000 tons per year of carbon-dioxide equivalent will be required to obtain prevention of significant deterioration and Clean Air Act Title V operating permits.\u00a0\u00a0 According to EPA, it is retaining those existing permitting thresholds because state permitting authorities need more time to develop the infrastructure necessary to issue GHG permits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New updates from October to the Center for Climate Change Law and Arnold &amp; Porter Climate Case Chart.\u00a0 Find the complete chart here. FEATURED DECISION\u00a0 Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp. (9th Cir. Sept. 21, 2012):\u00a0 added to the \u201ccommon law claims\u201d slide.\u00a0 The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit by Inupiat [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":838,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"czr-hentry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Updates to Climate Case Chart - Climate Law Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/10\/09\/updates-to-climate-case-chart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Updates to Climate Case Chart - Climate Law Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New updates from October to the Center for Climate Change Law and Arnold &amp; Porter Climate Case Chart.\u00a0 Find the complete chart here. 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