Connecticut Energy Marketers Association v. Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

The trade association appealed the decision.

The Connecticut Superior Court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the state’s Comprehensive Energy Strategy (CES), which the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) issued in February 2013 and which provided for a large-scale expansion of the state’s natural gas pipeline capacity. A trade association of energy marketers involved in sales of gasoline and heating fuel said the CES required preparation of an environmental impact evaluation (EIE) under the Connecticut Environmental Policy Act (CEPA). The trade group said that the environmental review should have considered methane leakage that would occur as a result of the CES’s implementation. The group noted that such leaks “comprise a significant source of [greenhouse gases] that should have been quantified and mitigated by DEEP as part of an EIE to ensure that the Plan is consistent with Connecticut’s climate change mandates.” The court dismissed the action on sovereign immunity grounds after finding that the group had failed to state a claim under CEPA. The court said that the state agencies (DEEP and the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority) had simply followed legislative duties imposed on them, and that the agencies could not ignore the legislature’s prescriptions. The CES therefore was not subject to the requirement for an EIE. As a result, the state’s sovereign immunity was intact, and the court did not have subject matter jurisdiction over the action.