Energy & Environment Legal Institute v. Epel

The federal district court for the District of Colorado ruled that the “Renewables Quota” of Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES) did not violate the dormant Commerce Clause. The Renewables Quota required that utilities obtain 30% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. The court found that plaintiffs had not made any effort to show that the Renewables Quota discriminated against out-of-state interests on its face or in purpose or effect. Moreover, the court rejected plaintiffs’ contentions that the Renewables Quota improperly regulated wholly out-of-state commerce. The court noted that the RES only affected commerce when an out-of-state electricity generator “freely chooses to do business with a Colorado utility” and that the RES did not impose conditions on the importation of electricity. The court also found that plaintiffs had failed to establish that the RES burdened interstate commerce for the purpose of the Pike balancing test. Plaintiffs <a href="https://eelegal.org/press-release-colorado-res-decision-paves-way-for-10th-district-appeal/">announced</a> they would appeal the district court’s judgment to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a challenge to Colorado's Renewable Energy Standard (RES), the federal district court for the District of Colorado ruled that the Energy and Environment Legal Institute—“a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of rational, free-market solutions to land, energy, and environmental challenges in the United States”—had standing to challenge the Renewables Quota, based on the lost sales and lost ability to compete of one of its members, a mining company that operated two coal mines in Wyoming. The court concluded, however, that neither the organization nor one of its individual members had standing to challenge two ancillary provisions of the RES.

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