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The Climate Litigation Database

Association of Energy Conservation Professionals v. Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board

Geography
🇺🇸 United States / Virginia
Year
2023
Document Type
Litigation
Part of
Association of Energy Conservation Professionals v. Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board

About this case

Filing year
2023
Status
State respondents' request to suspend execution of judgment granted.
Geography
🇺🇸 United States → Virginia
Docket number
CL23000173-00
Court/admin entity
United States → State Courts → Virginia Circuit Court (Va. Cir. Ct.)
Case category
State Law Claims (US) → Environmentalist Lawsuits (US)
Principal law
United States → State Law—Miscellaneous StatutesUnited States → Virginia Administrative Process ActUnited States → Virginia Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act
At issue
Challenge to Virginia regulation withdrawing the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Topics
, ,  

Documents

Filing Date
Document
Type
Topics 
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Search results
03/06/2025
State respondents' request to suspend execution of judgment granted.
Southern Environmental Law Center announced that a Virginia Circuit Court had granted a request by the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board and other respondents to suspend execution of the court’s November 2024 judgment that the respondents lacked authority to repeal the regulation that implemented Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The judgment will remain suspended while the State proceeds with an appeal.
Decision
–
11/18/2024
Repeal of RGGI regulation found unlawful and null and void.
A Virginia Circuit Court nullified the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board’s repeal of a regulation that implemented Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector. A 2020 law required Virginia to participate in a market-based trading program consistent with RGGI and directed the Department of Environmental Quality to incorporate the 2020 law’s provisions into a regulation to bring Virginia into RGGI. The court found that an association of weatherization professionals had standing to challenge the repeal because the association’s members would be injured by being deprived of funding through a Weatherization Deferral Repair program funded by RGGI revenues, an injury that was fairly traceable to the repeal and redressable by the court. On the merits, the court ruled that neither the 2020 law nor any other law gave the respondents authority to repeal the regulation.
Decision
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06/24/2024
Motion to dismis granted in part and denied in part.
On June 24, 2024, Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) announced that a Virginia Circuit Court had ruled that the Association of Energy Conservation Professionals adequately pleaded its standing to challenge Virginia’s decision to leave the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the multi-state cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector. SELC reported that the court would allow two of the plaintiff’s three claims to proceed: a claim that the Air Pollution Control Board, the Department of Environmental Quality, and its director do not have the authority to remove the State from RGGI and that a claim that the decision to remove the State from RGGI was not supported with the evidence required by the Virginia Administrative Process Act. The court denied a request to suspend the State’s action while the lawsuit is pending.
Press Release
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02/05/2024
Motion to dismiss granted in part and denied in part.
Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) announced that a Virginia Circuit Court had concluded that the Association of Energy Conservation Professionals had standing to challenge Virginia’s decision to remove the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). SELC reported that the court would allow two claims to move forward: (1) a challenge to Virginia agencies’ authority to remove the state from RGGI and (2) a claim that the decision was not supported with the evidence required by the Virginia Administrative Process Act. The court dismissed a third claim and said it would take under advisement the request for suspension of the state’s action while the lawsuit is pending.
Press Release
–

Summary

Challenge to Virginia regulation withdrawing the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

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Group
Topics
Policy instrument
Risk
Impacted group
Greenhouse gas
Economic sector
Finance