A company that produces refrigerants filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the question of whether Congress violated the Vesting Clause of Article I of the Constitution in the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020 (AIM Act) by giving an executive agency (the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)) “unbounded discretion to choose which private parties are entitled to participate in a multibillion-dollar market” for hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The petition contended that the AIM Act—which requires a phasedown of HFC production and consumption—failed to provide any “intelligible principle” to guide EPA’s exercise of discretion as required by the Court’s nondelegation doctrine. The company argued that in determining that Congress had provided sufficient guidance for EPA’s exercise of discretion, the D.C. Circuit had “committed an Article III violation by reading into the Act the guidance Congress did not supply.”

Challenge to EPA's final rule regarding the allowance allocation methodology for 2024 and later years that will be used to implement the phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act.

RMS of Georgia, LLC, d/b/a Choice Refrigerants v. EPA

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Refrigerant Producer Sought Supreme Court Review of AIM Act Nondelegation Doctrine Question

Filed

United States of America

District of Columbia

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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.

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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.

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

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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

Tradable permits are market-based tools that grant permission for specific activities, frequently used to regulate emissions. These permits can be issued within a trading system to manage environmental impacts.

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.

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.

Financial actors and resources that are primarily directed towards climate change mitigation, adaptation and compensation.

Dedicated pool of financial resources for climate-related projects.

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

A long-lived, colourless gas, chiefly emitted from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and cement production.

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.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

woman and genders outside of the gender binary

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This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

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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.

Refrigerant Producer Sought Supreme Court Review of AIM Act Nondelegation Doctrine Question

Target

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Finance