D.C. Circuit Holds That Petitioners Lack Standing To Challenge Carbon Sequestration Rule

As previously reported in the Spring 2015 issue of The Climate Report, the Carbon Sequestration Council, its member Southern Company Services, and the American Petroleum Institute ("API") filed a petition for review of EPA's final rule promulgated under the Resource Conversation and Recovery Act ("RCRA") that conditionally excluded from the definition of "hazardous waste" hazardous carbon dioxide streams that are injected into Class IV wells for purposes of geologic sequestration and that meet other criteria. Carbon Sequestration Council & S. Co. Servs. Inc. v. EPA, No. 14-1046.

The petitioners argued that the carbon dioxide emissions used in geologic sequestration are not "solid waste" and, therefore, not subject to RCRA, negating the need for the conditional exclusion.