Abstract
This Article takes as its starting point the premise that Congress, facing an existential climate catastrophe, might choose to impose direct and significant restrictions on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Were it to do so, federal policy would require powerful enforcement mechanisms to reach the myriad emission sources fueling the nation’s vast contribution to global warming.
Among the most potent and far-reaching enforcement tools available to Congress are citizen suits—actions brought by private litigants to enforce federal regulations and to hold agencies accountable for related inaction. Private enforcement in the context of climate change, however, faces a nearly insurmountable barrier—Article III standing as framed by the current Supreme Court. As this Article explains, the nature of climate injuries resulting from GHG emissions makes it impossible for private litigants suing for their redress to satisfy the highly restrictive requirements of the Court’s contemporary standing doctrine.
To preserve citizen suits as a central enforcement mechanism in a robust federal GHG regulatory program, the Article proposes that Congress think expansively about the kind of activities that it identifies for regulatory action. In addition to direct limitations on GHG emissions, primarily enforceable only through administrative action due to standing constraints, Congress should include parallel restrictions on separate injury-inflicting commercial activities that are essential for GHG emission sources to function. Private litigants injured by such prerequisite commercial activities will have standing to enforce regulations restricting their operation, with the collateral effect of restricting any dependent emission source as well. The Article illustrates how the regulation of prerequisite activities could powerfully enhance the enforcement of federal GHG restrictions by examining the prerequisite role played by concentrated animal feeding operations in facilitating the cattle and dairy industry and its significant contribution to the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Department
Law
Subject
agricultural law; environmental law
Publication Date
2-27-2025
Journal Title
B.C. Law Rev.
Publisher
Boston College Law Review
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: 10.70167/VQJQ9762
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Budd, Jordan and Sova McCabe, Margaret, "Standing to Enforce the Future: Citizen Suits and Climate Change" (2025). B.C. Law Rev.. 511.
https://scholars.unh.edu/law_facpub/511
