On January 25, 2017, the Clinic filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Murray Energy Corporation, et al. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, et al. (D.C. Cir. No. 16-1127 and consolidated cases) on behalf of Elsie M. Sunderland and eight other scientists in the latest round of the Mercury and Air Toxics Rule litigation. This case involves challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations limiting emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from power plants. After the Supreme Court remanded the Rule to EPA in Michigan v. EPA, 135 S. Ct. 2699 (2015), EPA completed a supplemental consideration of the costs associated with the regulation. In this brief, the Clinic argued that 1) mercury is a dangerous toxic metal and that power plants are the largest domestic source of mercury emissions; and 2) that the scientific literature confirms EPA’s conclusion that there are significant benefits to regulating power plant mercury emissions.
Clinic student Joshua Lee (JD’18) wrote the brief with Senior Clinical Instructor Shaun Goho.