State AG Database – Delaware

The following is a list of actions taken by the Delaware Attorney General to ensure that environmental laws are fully implemented and enforced:

• Lawsuits v. Federal Government

• Lawsuits v. Private Actors

• Defense of Federal Standards

Lawsuits v. Federal Government

New York v. Jackson (D.D.C. 2012): Multi-state lawsuit to force EPA to comply with Clean Air Act requirement to update and revise National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) every five years.

Delaware Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Control v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (2010): Delaware and New Jersey brought action pursuant to the APA to challenge a decision made by the US Army Corp of Engineers to proceed with a dredging project to deepen the main navigation channel of the Delaware River without obtaining requisite approval pursuant to the CWA, CAA, CZMA, and Delaware code.

American Farm Bureau Federation v. EPA (D.C. Cir. 2009): Multi-state lawsuit challenging the adequacy of EPA’s 2006 revision to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) regulating soot pollution under the Clean Air Act.

New Jersey et al. v. EPA (D.C. Cir. 2008): Multi-state challenge the EPA’s decision to migrate mercury regulations from section 112 to section 111 of the Clean Air Act.

New York v. EPA (D.C. Cir. 2006): Mutli-state Challenge to 2002 EPA rules modifying maintenance exceptions to New Source Review.

New York v. U.S. EPA (D.C. Cir. 2005): Multi-state challenge to 2002 EPA rule creating and modifying standards for the New Source Review process.

Lawsuits v. Private Actors

Settlement with Volkswagen for Emissions Defeat Devices (2016): Settlement of consumer protection claims raised by a multi-state coalition of state attorneys general against Volkswagen for selling vehicles equipped with “defeat device” software intended to circumvent emissions standards and concealing this software from regulators and the public.

Settlement, Connecticut v. Hyundai Motor Co. (Conn. Super. Ct. 2016): Multi-state settlement of consumer-protection claims against car manufacturers that overstated their vehicles’ fuel efficiency.

Defense of Federal Standards

North Dakota v. United States Environmental Protection Agency (D.C. Cir. 2015): 18 states filed amicus brief in support of EPA in litigation challenging New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) regulating carbon dioxide emission from new and modified power plants.

West Virginia v. EPA (D.C. Cir. 2015): Intervention to join EPA’s defense of Clean Power Plan against challenge mounted by other states and industry petitioners.

EPA v. EME Homer City Generation (2014): Ten states intervened in lawsuit to support EPA rule on cross-state air pollution against state and industry challenge.

Michigan v. EPA (2015): Fifteen states intervened in lawsuit to defend EPA standards regulating mercury and other air pollutants from the power sector.

Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA (2014): Multiple states intervened in lawsuit to defend EPA rules concerning regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from stationary and mobile sources.