By Paul Bean

A Vermont Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) against the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR). 

The CLF sued the State for failing to change the rules on the Climate Action Plan that would put Vermont on a trajectory to meet the mandated goals within the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2020 (GWSA). 

The July 11 decision clarifies the limits of legal challenges to the state’s climate action efforts and has drawn sharp commentary from Vermont’s Secretary of Natural Resources, Julie Moore.

“This case demonstrates the problematic nature of the Global Warming Solutions Act’s expansive private right of action provision,” said Moore in a written statement to VDC yesterday morning. “I remain disappointed that the Conservation Law Foundation chose to file a suit that diverted staff resources from the work needed to implement climate solutions to respond to their misguided claim.”

The lawsuit challenged ANR’s July 2024 determination not to update rules implementing the Vermont Climate Action Plan. CLF argued that ANR’s review process relied on bad modeling and failed to assess whether existing rules would meet the Act’s 2025 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. The CFL sought a court order compelling ANR to revise its rules by a specific deadline.

“Climate change isn’t waiting, so we’re disappointed that this ruling does not allow the case to move forward,” said CLF-VT Vice President Elena Mihaly. “The purpose of this lawsuit was to ensure we are clear-eyed about what we need to do to tackle the impacts from extreme storms, record heat, and our warming planet. Although the State made some corrections to its climate model as a result of the concerns CLF raised in this lawsuit, this decision means the public can’t legally challenge the Agency’s review. This lack of accountability is troubling.” 

Mihaly is the daughter of Representative Mark Mihaly (D. Washington-6), who voted for the clean heat standard as well as a number of climate related bills. 

Judge Timothy B. Tomasi ruled that the GWSA is meant to enforce statutory deadlines, not to challenge the substance of ANR’s decision-making. The court found that ANR met the July 1, 2024, deadline for reviewing of the Climate Action Plan rules, as required by the Act, rendering CLF’s claim as not permissible. 

The GWSA, enacted in 2020, mandates specific greenhouse gas emission reductions by 2025, 2030, and 2050, transforming earlier aspirational goals into binding legal requirements. It established the Vermont Climate Council to develop a Climate Action Plan and tasked ANR with adopting and updating rules to achieve these targets. 

The Act includes two citizen-suit provisions that allows challenges to ANR’s failure to meet rule-making deadline and one that permits suits if rules fail to achieve emission mandates, as evidenced by the state’s Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory.

CLF’s lawsuit alleged that ANR’s decision not to update its rules was flawed due to inadequate modeling. “It is clear on the face of the complaint in this case that ANR conducted its review and determined that it did not need to update the rules, all by the statutory deadline of July 1, 2024,” the court stated.

The ruling does not block future challenges if emissions data indicates failure to meet the 2025 targets. For now, ANR’s existing rules remain in place, and the state continues its efforts to implement the Climate Action Plan.