International Center for Technology Assessment v. Council on Environmental Quality

The International Center for Technology Assessment and its sister organization, the Center for Food Safety, filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice; the notice indicated that the organizations were preserving their right to challenge the denial on its merits.

Two non-profit organizations filed an action in the federal district court for the District of Columbia seeking to compel the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to respond to a 2008 petition in which plaintiff International Center for Technology Assessment asked CEQ to require consideration of climate change impacts in environmental review documents prepared to comply with NEPA. The complaint alleged that while CEQ published draft guidance in 2010 that would affirm that agencies must consider climate change impacts in their NEPA reviews, CEQ never finalized the guidance or otherwise “formally responded” or took “meaningful action” in response to the 2008 petition. Plaintiffs claimed that this lack of response violated the Administrative Procedure Act.