Earlier this month, a federal district court in California certified a class claiming economic injury caused by alleged misrepresentations regarding pet food ingredients.  The class alleges that the pet food advertises its ingredients as healthful when in fact the products contained allegedly harmful chemicals, including PFAS. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: California, Causation, Class Actions, Damages, PFAS, Standing

On January 14, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied a petition for review challenging the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (“TCEQ”) approval of a third extension of the construction deadline for the Texas LNG Port of Brownsville liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) terminal. The Court held that although environmental justice advocates had standing to challenge the extension, TCEQ’s executive director acted within her delegated authority and the agency’s decision was supported by substantial evidence under Texas administrative law. The ruling, South Texas Environmental Justice Network v. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality et al., Case No. 24-60580, clarifies the procedural and substantive standards governing construction-deadline extensions for New Source Review (“NSR”) permits under Texas law and reinforces agency discretion when permittees satisfy the express requirements of the applicable regulation. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Agency Action, Citizen Suit, Energy, Fifth Circuit, Natural Gas, Oil and Gas, Permits, Standing, Texas

Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York denied a motion by several environmental organizations seeking to intervene in a multistate constitutional challenge to New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act (“CCSA” or the “Act”) – a landmark 2024 statute designed to recover climate adaptation costs from major fossil fuel producers. The statute (N.Y. Env’t Conservation Law §§ 76-0101, et seq.) has drawn national attention as one of the more aggressive state-level attempts to assign financial responsibility for climate impacts.  For background on the CCSA, see my special alert post. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Air, Climate Change, Greenhouse Gas, Intervention, Legislation, New York, Oil and Gas, Second Circuit, Standing

On June 20, 2025, the Supreme Court issued it opinion in Diamond Alternative Energy v. EPA, holding fuel producers had standing—and had specifically demonstrated redressability—to challenge California-specific regulations EPA approved under the Clean Air Act.  The Court’s opinion  reversing and remanding to the D.C. Circuit left the merits of the case for another day, but acknowledged that the regulations at issue may be rescinded shortly, mooting most, if not all, of the parties’ controversy. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Agency Action, Air, California, Clean Air Act, Climate Change, D.C. Circuit, Emissions, EPA, Federal Procedure, Greenhouse Gas, Legislation, Oil and Gas, Standing, Supreme Court, United States Supreme Court

In March 2024, the County of Bucks filed a controversial suit under state law against a number of large oil companies alleging the County was injured because of the companies’ deceptive conduct with respect to their impact on climate change. The Defendants filed various preliminary objections including lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, arguing that despite the County’s effort to focus the complaint on fraudulent practices, the case at bottom alleged harm from severe weather allegedly due to air emissions, which are governed exclusively by federal law. On May 16, 2025, the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas issued an opinion agreeing with the Defendants and dismissing the case entirely.  See Bucks County v. BP P.L.C., et al., No. 2024-01836 (Bucks Cty. Com. Pl. May 16, 2025). Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Clean Air Act, Climate Change, Pennsylvania, Preemption, Standing

On July 18, 2024, in Shirley v. Pennsylvania Legislative Reference Bureau, No. 85 MAP 2022, 2024 WL 3450536 (Pa. July 18, 2024), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the denial of three nonprofit organizations’ application to intervene in the litigation challenging the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) regulation implementing Pennsylvania’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (the RGGI Regulation).  After rejecting several arguments regarding the appealability of the order denying intervention, the Court found that the nonprofits’ interest in defending the RGGI Regulation under the Pennsylvania Constitution’s Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA) was not adequately represented by the PADEP and therefore the lower court erred in denying intervention.  Because of this ruling, the three nonprofit organizations (Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, Clean Air Council, and the Sierra Club) (Nonprofits) are now able to pursue an appeal of the Commonwealth Court’s final order permanently enjoining the RGGI Regulation from going into effect.  Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Air, Clean Air Act, Environmental Rights Amendment, Greenhouse Gas, Hazardous Air Pollutants, Intervention, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Rulemaking, Standing

The Eleventh Circuit recently addressed the standing requirements for a procedural-rights claim, in this case one arising from an agency’s alleged failure to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”).  In a split 2-1 decision in Center for a Sustainable Coast v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the court held that standing to challenge an agency’s alleged violation of NEPA does not require a showing that a procedural do-over would necessarily redress a substantive injury. No. 22-11079, 2024 WL 1918733 (11^th Cir. May 2, 2024). Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Administrative Procedures Act, NEPA, Permits, Standing

On September 14, 2023, in Conservation Law Foundation v. Academy Bus, a Massachusetts District Court held that the members of the Conservation Law Foundation (the “Foundation”) lacked standing to challenge the idling of buses under the Clean Air Act (“CAA”).  Conservation Law Found. v. Acad. Express, LLC., No. 20-10032-WGY, 2023 WL 5984517, at *1 (D. Mass. Sept. 14, 2023). Specifically, the court held that simply breathing in polluted air, without any concrete injury that is fairly traceable to the defendant, is not sufficient to prove an actual injury under the CAA. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Air, Citizens Suit, Clean Air Act, Emissions, HAPs, Hazardous Air Pollutants, Odors, Standing

This post was authored by Alice Douglas, with contributions from Summer Associate Reilly Wright 

On July 5, 2023, the United States Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approved the largest offshore wind energy project to date—known as Ocean Wind 1—which will entail the construction of up to 98 wind turbines and up to 3 offshore substations off the coast of New Jersey over the next two years.  Ocean Wind 1, financed by the Danish company Orsted, is the third offshore wind energy project to gain approval by the Biden administration, following the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts and the South Fork Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island and New York, which are both currently under construction. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Administrative Procedures Act, Citizen Suit, Climate Change, Endangered Species Act, Energy, NEPA, Permits, Standing

Over the last week, pre-enforcement challenges to two separate federal government actions have been dismissed for lack of standing.  In Commonwealth of Kentucky et al. v. EPA, et al., No 3:23-cv-00007-GFVT, 2023 WL 2733383 (E.D. Ky. March 31, 2023), the Honorable Gregory F. Van Tatenhove of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky dismissed without prejudice claims brought by the Commonwealth of Kentucky (the “Commonwealth”) and private-sector plaintiffs challenging the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) and Army Corps of Engineers’ rule redefining “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act.  Five days later, in The State of Louisiana, et al. v. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., et al., No. 22-30087, 2023 WL 2780821 (5th Cir. April 5, 2023), the Honorable Jacques L. Wiener, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit dismissed states’ challenges to President Biden’s social cost of greenhouse gases established pursuant to Executive Order No. 13990 (the “Executive Order”).  Both cases demonstrate the importance of alleging sufficient harm to confer federal court jurisdiction. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Air, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Due Process, Federal Jurisdiction, Federal Procedure, Greenhouse Gas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Procedure, Rapanos, Standing, Water