Defensores del Valle Central para el Aire y Agua Límpio v. California Air Resources Board

Four organizations filed a lawsuit challenging the California Air Resources Board’s amendments to the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard. They alleged that adoption of the amendments exceeded CARB’s statutory authority under the Global Warming Solutions Act and that the amendments were arbitrary, capricious, contrary to law, and unsupported by substantial evidence. The organizations alleged that the amendments increased incentives for factory farms to produce biogas to generate LCFS credits, which would increase environmental and public health harms caused by larger and more concentrated factory farms. In addition, the organizations alleged that the amendments would result in double counting of methane emissions reductions by allowing claimed emissions reductions from methane capture at California dairy operations to be used as LCFS credits in the transportation sector by regulated parties to meet compliance obligations while also be counted towards the dairy and livestock sectors required methane reductions under the Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Act.