Environmental Defense Fund, Inc. v. Wright

The federal district court for the District of Massachusetts granted the Secretary of Energy and other federal defendants’ motion to temporarily stay proceedings in Environmental Defense Fund and Union of Concerned Scientists’ suit challenging the establishment of the Climate Working Group and its utilization to produce a report on which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) relied as a basis for the proposed rescission of the endangerment finding for greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The defendants told the court in their motion that because this Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) case “does not present any imminent threat to the safety of human life or the protection of property,” Department of Justice (DOJ) employees were not authorized to work on it during the federal government shutdown. The plaintiffs opposed the stay, arguing that other exceptions would permit DOJ employees to work on the case and that any delay in the case would prejudice the plaintiffs by preventing them from obtaining records and relief under FACA while EPA staff continued to work on rulemaking, including the rescission of the endangerment finding.