Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined an Indiana-led multistate amicus brief urging an en banc rehearing of a decision by the Boston-based U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals that threatens to allow one state—Rhode Island—to effectively set other states’ climate policies.
“Permitting 50 different state judiciaries to set global emissions standards would lead to utter chaos,” the brief reads. “The [Clean Air Act] does not authorize a single state’s courts to set national emissions standards. It merely transfers responsibility for setting those standards from federal courts to other federal officials. The panel’s contrary ruling threatens to give Rhode Island courts the power to set climate-change policy for the entire country.”
The case is Rhode Island v. Shell Oil, Chevron, et al. (1st Cir., Cause No. 19-1818).
Read the amicus brief here.