The federal district court for the District of Columbia granted the Federal Energy Management and other federal defendants’ motion to transfer to the District of Puerto Rico a case alleging that the defendants conducted flawed environmental reviews for post-hurricane disaster aid. The plaintiffs’ allegations included that the defendants failed to consider distributed renewable energy alternatives as alternatives to continued reliance on a centralized fossil fuel power system. The court concluded that transfer was warranted due to local interest in deciding local controversies at home.

Lawsuit alleging that FEMA and other defendants prepared flawed environmental assessments of the impacts of using federal disaster aid to repair, reconstruct, and relocate Puerto Rico’s fossil fuel-based electricity infrastructure after hurricanes.

Comité Dialogo Ambiental v. Federal Emergency Management Agency

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D.C. Federal Court Said Challenge to NEPA Review for Post-Hurricane Aid Should Be Heard by District of Puerto Rico

Filed

United States of America

Puerto Rico

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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

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

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

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.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

The activities of industries involved in the production, distribution, and sale of energy, including electricity, gas, and renewables.

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

D.C. Federal Court Said Challenge to NEPA Review for Post-Hurricane Aid Should Be Heard by District of Puerto Rico

Risk

Impacted group

Renewable energy

Economic sector

Finance