US federal appeals court upholds Biden administration guidance for federal agencies on greenhouse gas emissions News
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US federal appeals court upholds Biden administration guidance for federal agencies on greenhouse gas emissions

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Wednesday vacated a preliminary injunction blocking Executive Order 13990. The order re-established an interagency working group to calculate the “social costs of greenhouse gases” for consideration by federal agencies during policymaking.

The plaintiffs are a group of Republican-led states, including Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming. In an opinion by Judge Jacques Wiener Jr., the court concluded that the states did not have standing to challenge the order because their injuries flow from “potential future regulations.” The court also noted that the order does not require any federal action, and the alleged harms from the order “rely on a highly attenuated chain of possibilities.”

To have standing, a plaintiff must demonstrate that they suffered an injury in fact, the injury in fact is fairly traceable to the defendant’s conduct and the injury in fact is likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision. In this case, the court ruled that the plaintiffs did not meet this burden because the injury in fact must be “actual or imminent.” Because the plaintiffs did not meet the initial hurdle of the standing test, the court did not consider the second and third factors.

The states sued in the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana and asserted that the order was procedurally invalid and arbitrary and capricious. The the court agreed with the states and issued a preliminary injunction blocking agencies from relying on any work product from the working group.

While the Biden administration has won some support from environmental activists, it approved the Willow Project, an $8 billion oil development project proposed by ConocoPhillips in the Alaskan Arctic, in March. This approval has been criticized and is the subject of several challenges and lawsuits. 

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