Sparing the SG some work
on Jan 3, 2012 at 4:25 pm
A Supreme Court case awaiting the views of the federal government has now been settled out of court, and thus has been routinely dismissed. The Court on October 3 had asked the U.S. Solicitor General for the government’s views on Sandy Creek Energy Associates v. Sierra Club (docket 10-1333). It was dismissed on December 16 on agreement of both sides, according to the Court’s docket entry.
The issue in the case was whether the Environmental Protection Agency can impose new restrictions on air pollution emissions for a power plant after construction was under way, especially after the project had met all prior requirements to control hazardous pollution. After the petition-stage filings were in, the Court referred the case to the Solicitor General. As of December 15, when the parties told the Court they had settled, the SG’s office had not filed its views. When the parties agree on scuttling a pending case, dismissal follows automatically.
