HFCs Have Warming Potential 100s To 1,000s More Than CO2; Appeal Underway To SCOTUS Re. Whether They Can Be Regulated
Companies challenging an EPA rule on the phasedown of potent heat-trapping chemicals are asking the Supreme Court to revive a legal doctrine limiting the power Congress can hand off to federal regulators. The New Civil Liberties Alliance, which represents a company that participates in refrigerant aftermarkets, has asked the high court to overturn a 2025 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that upheld EPA’s method of allocating production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons.
EPA’s HFC phasedown was mandated by the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, a 2020 law signed by President Donald Trump during his first term. The law gave EPA authority to cut back production and industrial use of the compounds used in cooling and refrigeration, as well as in fire suppression.
But the New Civil Liberties Alliance has argued the 2020 law failed to supply clear direction to EPA as to how it should allocate 98 percent of the allowances in the multibillion-dollar HFCs market. In its petition, the group invoked the long-dormant nondelegation doctrine, which says Congress cannot hand off its lawmaking power to executive agencies like EPA.
The petition marks the latest effort by conservative groups to resurrect the doctrine, which has not been used since 1935. The Supreme Court had an opportunity to revive the legal theory last year but declined to do so. “Congress’ abject failure to supply meaningful guardrails cannot stand, and neither can the D.C. Circuit’s effort to supply the guardrails that Congress did not,” the group said in its petition to the Supreme Court. The justices take up about 1 percent of petitions that come their way.
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https://www.eenews.net/articles/supreme-court-fight-over-hfcs-takes-aim-at-power-of-congress/