In Conservation Law Foundation’s (CLF’s) citizen suit alleging that Gulf Oil Limited Partnership violated federal environmental laws by failing to prepare a bulk petroleum storage terminal in New Haven for the impacts of climate change, the federal district court for the District of Connecticut granted CLF’s motion to amend its complaint to remedy deficiencies identified by the court when it dismissed certain counts under the Clean Water Act and all counts under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act for failure to plausibly allege standing. In its earlier decision, the court concluded that CLF’s allegations regarding the “longer-term impacts” of climate change were not sufficient to establish Article III standing, which requires an imminent risk of harm. Although the court found that most of CLF’s proposed new allegations still pertained to climate change’s longer-term impacts, the court ruled that other assertions in the proposed amended complaint and its attachments adequately alleged standing, “albeit just barely.” The court found that the proposed allegations plausibly suggested that a Category 1 or 2 hurricane could be expected to strike the terminal “at virtually any time” and that there was “a substantial risk that such a storm will cause the discharge of pollutants from the Terminal.” The court said these allegations, “coupled with [CLF’s] allegations that climate change is continually increasing the risk that a severe storm will cause a discharge of pollutants from the terminal,” were sufficient to plausibly suggest a substantial risk of harm to CLF’s members in the near term. The court denied CLF’s request to assert a new Clean Water Act claim alleging that Gulf Oil caused or contributed to an exceedance of water quality standards. The court found that CLF failed to show good cause to add this new count.

Citizen suit alleging failures to prepare a bulk storage and fuel terminal in New Haven, Connecticut for the effects of climate change.

Conservation Law Foundation v. Pike Fuels LP

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Conservation Law Foundation Allowed to Add Allegations Regarding Near-Term Climate Change Harms to Remedy Standing Shortcomings in Adaptation Suit

Filed

United States of America

Connecticut

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Codes and standards are regulatory instruments that specify minimum standards to protect health and safety. This ranges from performance standards, which prescribe outcomes while allowing flexibility to achieve compliance, to the more prescriptive approach of technology-specific standards.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

Actions to adapt and increase the resilience of rural and urban infrastructure and settlements to climate change.

Coastal zone and marine-related actions and measures to adapt and increase resilience to climate change

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Risks to the ecosystem health of the marine environment, including ocean warming, ocean acidification, and ocean deoxygenation, harming biodiversity, species health, ecosystem services, and coastal community livelihoods.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

This sector involves the distribution, treatment, and conservation of water resources.

Climate change can have a range of impacts on technological system. Extreme weather events can cause infrastructure failures like power outages or damage to roads and bridges, as well as the impacts from waste following natural disasters. Human activities also cause technological impacts, such as the risks posed by oil spillage and leaks.

Any substance with chemical properties that can cause physical harm to people or damage the environment, including ammonia, carbon monoxide, phosphine, chlorine, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, pesticides, dioxins, microplastics, benzene, asbestos, aflatoxins, fluoride, methanol, and toxins from marine sources.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

Heavy precipitation refers to any form of weather where substances fall from the sky, including rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

Conservation Law Foundation Allowed to Add Allegations Regarding Near-Term Climate Change Harms to Remedy Standing Shortcomings in Adaptation Suit

Policy instrument

Risk

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience