The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a district court order dismissing a putative class action brought by grantees under the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA’s) Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant program to challenge the termination of all grants awarded under the program. The D.C. Circuit found that the district court erred by reaching the merits of the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims without first assessing the jurisdictional issue of whether the cases was mooted by Congress’s rescission of the “unobligated balances of amounts made available to carry out” the IRA provision establishing the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant program. The D.C. Circuit vacated the dismissal order in full, including the district court’s determination that it lacked jurisdiction over the plaintiffs’ Administrative Procedure Act claims because the Tucker Act precluded district court jurisdiction over the plaintiffs’ “essentially” contractual claims. The D.C. Circuit concluded that since a decision on mootness could render review of the Tucker Act issue unnecessary, it was “appropriate to leave that issue for another day.” The D.C. Circuit remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings.

Class action by grantees challenging the termination of the Inflation Reduction Act’s Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant program.

Appalachian Voices v. EPA

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D.C. Circuit Vacated Dismissal of Challenge to Termination of Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants, Citing District Court’s Failure to Assess Jurisdictional Issue

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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

People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

woman and genders outside of the gender binary

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

D.C. Circuit Vacated Dismissal of Challenge to Termination of Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants, Citing District Court’s Failure to Assess Jurisdictional Issue

Impacted group

Economic sector

Finance