Texas Public Policy Foundation v. U.S. Department of Commerce

The Texas Public Policy Foundation (Foundation) filed three lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the federal district court for the Western District of Texas to compel disclosure of documents by the Departments of Energy, State, and Commerce related to efforts to support the Biden administration’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement in which the U.S. set an economy-wide target of reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions by 50–52% below 2005 levels in 2030. The Foundation alleged that “[s]etting the Nationally Determined Contribution Number is a matter of huge economic significance” and that “[b]oth the Foundation and public have the right to know the extent of [each of the three agencies’] role in doing so.”