A federal appeals court has declined to revisit an unsuccessful challenge to an EPA rule governing the phase-down of heat-trapping chemicals.
Without elaborating, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday rejected a request from the conservative legal group New Civil Liberties Alliance for a hearing in the case before the court’s entire bench. Such requests are rarely granted.
In August, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit found that EPA’s 2024 framework rule establishing allowances related to companies’ production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, did not violate the Constitution and was in line with procedural law.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance, which represents a company that participates in refrigerant aftermarkets, had argued on behalf of its client, Choice Refrigerants, that the D.C. Circuit’s decision contradicted recent Supreme Court cases in which the alliance had prevailed. Those cases include Loper Bright v. Raimondo, which eliminated Chevron deference, a 40-year-old legal precedent that had instructed judges to defer to federal agencies’ reading of ambiguous laws.
