The federal district court for the District of Columbia dismissed a class action challenging EPA’s termination of Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants awarded pursuant to the Inflation Reduction Act. The court concluded that it did not have jurisdiction over the grant recipients’ claims under the Administrative Procedure Act that the terminations were arbitrary and capricious or contrary to law. Instead, the court determined that the Court of Federal Claims had exclusive jurisdiction over the claims under the Tucker Act because the plaintiffs’ claims were contractual. The court also ruled that the grant recipients could not bring separation of powers and Presentment Clause claims because these constitutional claims were predicated on “underlying statutory violations” of the Clean Air Act and Inflation Reduction Act, and D.C. Circuit precedent prohibits bringing “freestanding” constitutional claims if the underlying violation is statutory.

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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Federal District Court Dismissed Class Action Challenging Termination of Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants

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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

A loan is a policy instrument where funds are provided to a borrower with the expectation of repaying the principal plus interest.

A ban is a legal action that prevents the sale or supply of a product or service, or that recalls a product from the market. Examples are bans on SF6, greenwashing, fossil fuel advertisement or single-use plastics.

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

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

This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

This sector involves activities that impart knowledge and skills to individuals, including formal schooling, vocational training and educational support.

Federal District Court Dismissed Class Action Challenging Termination of Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants

Policy instrument

Impacted group

Economic sector

Finance