Louisiana v. Biden

In a single-sentence order, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an application by Louisiana and nine other states to vacate the Fifth Circuit’s stay of a district court’s preliminary injunction barring federal agencies from using the work product of the Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases and from using any social cost of greenhouse gases estimates based on the global effects of greenhouse gases. The district court also ordered the federal defendants to return to using 2003 guidance. Briefing on the merits of the preliminary injunction appeal is underway in the Fifth Circuit, with Louisiana and the other nine states’ brief due on June 16, 2022.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit brought by Louisiana and other states to challenge President Biden’s executive order re-establishing an interagency working group to develop guidance on the social cost of greenhouse gases (SCGHG) and the SCGHG Interim Estimates published by the working group. The Fifth Circuit also vacated a preliminary injunction that enjoined federal defendants from using any work product of the working group or any SCGHG estimates that did not comply with Circular A-4 (cost-benefit analysis guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget in 2003). The Fifth Circuit ruled that the states did not meet their burden of establishing standing because they did not allege an injury in fact. The court found that the fiscal, procedural, and sovereignty-related harms alleged by the states were harms that could be caused, not by the Interim Estimates, but by regulations that might result from the Interim Estimates. The Fifth Circuit said this “mere ‘possibility of regulation’” did not satisfy injury in fact requirements.