April 22, 2022

Louisiana AG Plans to Appeal Cost of Carbon Ruling to Supreme Court

Lori Kalani, Bernard Nash

Cozen O'Connor

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Cozen O'Connor

Louisiana AG Jeff Landry, leading a 10-state coalition of AGs, stated that he plans to petition the Supreme Court to review a 5th Circuit order reversing a lower court ruling enjoining the use of an increased “social cost of carbon” metric imposed by the Biden administration.
The AGs challenged the Biden administration’s Executive Order 13990, which reinstated an Obama administration policy of requiring federal agencies to assess the social costs of carbon dioxide emissions at about $51 per ton when calculating the impact a federal program may have on the environment. This metric increase comes after the Trump administration lowered the estimated cost to $7 per ton.
Though a federal district court granted the AGs’ requested injunction blocking implementation of the $51 carbon cost metric, a 5th Circuit panel overturned the ruling last month on the grounds that the AGs, as plaintiffs, lacked standing to appeal because the claimed injury was still hypothetical, and that the lower court acted “outside the authority of the federal courts” in requiring the Biden administration to adhere to Trump administration policies without a specific agency action to review.

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