Neighbors for a Better Micron v. Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency

An unincorporated association of residents who live near the planned site for a large-scale semiconductor manufacturing complex (the Micron Project) in Onondaga County, New York, and a not-for-profit organization “dedicated to ensuring that public investments create high-quality jobs, protect public health, and advance equitable and sustainable economic development” filed a lawsuit in a New York State trial court seeking to annul the adoption of a final environmental impact statement (FEIS) for the Micron Project as well as all approvals granted based on the FEIS. The petitioners also sought to annul the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC’s) determination that the Micron Project was justified despite its inconsistency with the greenhouse gas emissions reduction mandates of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). The petitioners contended that DEC acted arbitrarily and capriciously by accepting three areas of mitigation—installation of solar panels, installation of electric vehicle charging stations, and allocations of funds for additional projects—as sufficient to mitigate emissions. The petitioners asserted that because it relied on the funding of unidentified projects, DEC’s justification failed to identify real, quantifiable, permanent, verifiable, and enforceable mitigation measures. Under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, the petitioners also made climate change-related arguments, including that the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency failed to include an assessment of the Micron Project’s greenhouse gas emissions and compliance with the CLCPA in the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) as required by the final scoping document and that the failure to include the draft CLCPA analysis in the DEIS deprived the public of an opportunity to comment. The petitioners contended that a supplemental environmental impact statement should have been required.