California Business Properties Association v. California Air Resources Board

A coalition of business and taxpayers filed suit in state court alleging that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) had violated the state’s public records act by failing to turn over certain documents relating to a pending greenhouse gas emissions fee. The plaintiffs claimed that the documents were necessary for substantiating the basis for the amount of fees and the nexus between the fees, fee payers, and the regulatory activity to be funded. The groups first requested the documents in February 2009 and alleged that the CARB had failed after repeated requests to provide all relevant documents related to the development of the greenhouse gas “administrative fee” scheduled to be adopted in summer 2009. The fee aimed to collect about $56 million from a variety of major greenhouse gas-emitting sources in the state to pay for the first two years of implementing AB 32, the state’s 2006 climate change bill, and a projected $39 million per year after that.