The trade associations American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers and American Petroleum Institute filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the Southern District of New York challenging the constitutionality of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. The complaint alleged that the reporting program “imposes a complex, unprecedented reporting regime on energy-industry participants across the country, whether or not they are located or do business in New York,” including requirements that out-of-state entities report “detailed, commercially sensitive, and often proprietary information about oil and gas supplies, products, sources, and markets.” The complaint also alleged that the program authorized DEC to conduct “warrantless inspections of facilities outside New York State” and imposed significant civil and criminal penalties for noncompliance. The trade groups asserted that program violates the dormant Commerce Clause and the constitutional prohibition on extraterritorial regulation, as well as the First Amendment (“by compelling overbroad and misleading disclosure (speech), regarding commercially sensitive information, on matters of public controversy without a compelling or substantial governmental interest”) and the Fourth Amendment (“by contriving consent to warrantless searches and inspections of out-of-state facilities and compelling production of private data without an opportunity for pre-compliance review”). In addition, they asserted that the program violates the Supremacy Clause because it is preempted by the Clean Air Act.

Trade organizations' constitutional challenge to New York's Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program.

American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers v. James

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Trade Associations Filed Constitutional Challenge to New York’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program

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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.

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Conditions that enhance the feasibility of adaptation options. Enabling conditions include finance, technological innovation, strengthening policy instruments, institutional capacity, multi-level governance and changes in human behaviour and lifestyles.

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

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

A potent, short-lived greehouse gas, largely released from livestock, fossil fuel extraction and waste management.

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

Air pollution involves harmful contaminants in the air, affecting both indoor and outdoor environments. It can lead to health issues like respiratory diseases and heart problems, and climate impacts such as global warming. Pollutants can damage plants, trees, habitats, and water bodies like rivers and lakes.

Kinetic energy of airflow transformed into useful energy, mostly electrical energy.

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.

Work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for all, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity.

The activities of industries that transforms raw materials into finished goods through industrial processes.

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This sector involves managing waste treatment, sanitation, pollution control and environmental cleanup.

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Trade Associations Filed Constitutional Challenge to New York’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance