Supreme Court Skips Challenge to EPA Air Endangerment Finding

The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to revisit a lower court decision that quashed fossil fuel groups’ hopes of reopening arguments against key EPA language on the dangers of greenhouse gases.

The Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council and the FAIR Energy Foundation asked the Environmental Protection Agency to re-examine a 2009 endangerment finding, which was established after Massachusetts v. EPA—the decision that established greenhouse gases as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.

That language says that six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, pose a danger to public health and the environment and can thus be regulated under air law.

The EPA refused to reconsider the finding, and the groups took that refusal to court, claiming that the finding has caused a deluge of regulations that impose high costs on electricity consumers.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed the suit for lack of standing, since petitioners “provide no evidence that they or any of their members have been injured by the Endangerment Finding.” The groups filed their now-dismissed certiorari petition in October 2023.

“Today’s decision is welcome news as EPA has a bedrock responsibility under our nation’s clean air laws to protect the American people from the clear and present danger of climate pollution,” Environmental Defense Fund attorney Vickie Patton said in a statement. “EPA’s determination that climate pollution harms people’s health and well-being is solidly anchored in science and the law.”

The case is Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council v. EPA, U.S., No. 23-418, Cert denial 12/11/23.