Category — Court Rulings

On July 1, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) rejected an appeal brought forth by the attorneys general of Washington and South Carolina alleging that the United States Department of Energy (“DOE”) violated the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (“NWPA”).  The attorneys general claimed that the DOE violated the NWPA by seeking to withdraw their license application to build and operate the Yucca Mountain nuclear disposal site in Nevada, under the direction of President Obama, thus effectively killing the nuclear disposal project.  [Read more →]

On June 20, 2011, the Supreme Court spoke for the second time on climate change. Observing that the Supreme Court “endorses no particular view of the complicated issues related to carbon-dioxide emissions and climate change,” a unanimous Court, in a decision written by Justice Ruth Ginsburg, held that Congress, through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) – and not a group of states and cities using federal common law – should decide national policy on climate change. [Read more →]

On June 3, 2011, the California 1st District Court of Appeal (“Appeals Court”) granted consideration of the California Air Resources Board’s (“CARB”) petition to overturn the decision of Judge Ernest Goldsmith of the San Francisco Superior Court of California (see May 27, 2011 edition of the WER). [Read more →]

On May 20, 2011, Judge Ernest Goldsmith of the Superior Court of California issued a judgment that orders the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) to stop implementing a cap-and-trade program until the board analyzes alternatives to the cap-and-trade program as part of the agency’s scoping plan. [Read more →]

On April 26, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“DC Circuit”) rejected a challenge by George C. Jepsen, Attorney General for the State of Connecticut and the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel (together, the “petitioners”) to ISO New England’s (“ISO- NE”) 2010 Budget. [Read more →]