More Sauce For The Standing Goose: Industry Associations Cannot Challenge EPA’s E15 Rule

I have previously noted that standing is a double-edged sword. Most commonly, the regulated community uses standing to keep citizen plaintiffs out of court. However, as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals demonstrated yesterday, the regulated community is sometimes hoist on its own collective petard.

The decision in Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers v. EPA in the challenge to EPA's E15 rule wasn't surprising. After all, it was the second time that the Court concluded that the industry petitioners don't have standing. The Court stated that both plaintiffs "failed to offer evidence connecting sales of E15 under the regulation to injuries that [their] members are sufficiently likely to suffer so as to afford [them] standing."