DC Circuit Rejects Challenges to GHG Rules

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has rejected appeals of the Endangerment Finding, the Tailpipe Rule  the Tailoring Rule,  effectively approving EPA's regulation of greenhouse gases.  The decision is here.  It was a clear win for EPA and for the environmental groups that supported the agency.  The Court ruled:

for the reasons set forth below, we conclude: 1) the Endangerment Finding and Tailpipe Rule are neither arbitrary nor capricious; 2) EPA’s interpretation of the governing CAA provisions is unambiguously correct; and 3) no petitioner has standing to challenge the Timing and Tailoring Rules. We thus dismiss for lack of jurisdiction all petitions for review of the Timing and Tailoring Rules, and deny the remainder of the petitions.

It was disappointing that the Court found the endangerment rule was not arbitrary and capricious, given  EPA's reliance on flawed studies and refusal to submit its finding to its own Science Advisory Board. Less surprising was the Court's decision to skip the question of whether the Tailoring Rule was a proper exercise of EPA discretion  by finding the states and businesses challenging the rule had no standing to do so. In adopting the Tailoring  Rule EPA was clearly misapplying the Clean Air Act, but since it was doing so in a way that benefited  the state and business petitioners, the petitioners had no grounds to complain.  The Court therefore never reached the merits of whether EPA could raise the permitting threshold for GHGs beyond the level established in the Clean Air Act.

An appeal to the  Supreme Court is likely, and a win by Romney in November is likely to result in a reconsideration of the Endangerment Finding.  But Romney's election  is far from a sure thing, so this decision could stick.

Here's a more complete review of the decision by Ann Carlson