Green groups sue CARB over LCFS amendments

In California, environmental justice and environmental groups recently filed a new lawsuit against Governor Newsom’s California Air Resources Board (CARB) over the state’s controversial amendments to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. 

The new lawsuit argues that CARB is acting like a rogue agency by ignoring the requirements and safeguards in California law designed to ensure that programs like the LCFS actually help the climate and California communities. Instead, CARB has prioritized dairy industry profits over effective, equitable climate action. By massively incentivizing the production of factory farm biogas, the agency continues to reward the biggest polluters and plans to do so for decades to come.

This lawsuit is filed in addition to one filed at the end of last year – in which groups claimed CARB failed to adequately address the health and environmental impacts of the LCFS amendments. Petitioners seek to force CARB to disclose, analyze, and mitigate the significant environmental impact caused by the LCFS amendments as required by the California Environmental Quality Act in that case.

Petitioners are Defensores del Valle Central para el Aire y Agua Limpio, Food & Water Watch, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and Center for Food Safety. Defensores is represented by Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability and the Law Office of Brent Newell.