D.C. Circuit Endangerment Finding Litigation: The Nefarious EPA "Futility" Analysis

Readers of my previous (August 13) post on the Endangerment Finding (EF) litigation pending in the D.C. Circuit may have come away wondering about this issue: What is the basis on which this coalition of most blue states plus many major municipalities and big-time environmental NGOs seeks to put an indefinite stall on resolution of the litigation?  

As reported in that post, after the Trump EPA had finalized its rescission of the EF in February 2026, a large number of blue states, municipalities and environmental NGOs promptly filed Petitions in the D.C. Circuit seeking to have the court block that action.  But, once having commenced the case, the same group of major actors immediately started engaging in tactics to slow the litigation down and postpone the beginning of briefing on the merits.  Most recently on July 29, a large group of most of the Petitioners in the litigation — including some 20 blue states (California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, etc., etc.), large municipalities (New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc., etc.), and NGOs (Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club, etc., etc.) — filed a motion to put the case into “abeyance” for 30 days to force EPA to re-do some of the analysis that supports the rescission.  While the “abeyance” request itself is only for 30 days, a re-do of EPA’s analysis could re-start the running of multiple clocks, and thereby delay the litigation for months, if not a year or more. 

Now, this litigation potentially affects some trillions of dollars of economic activity.  Surely, if there is to be a significant delay, there must be some very important reason.  But in fact the stated basis for the motion, backed by all these big-time entities, is beyond trivial.  I thought readers might be interested in seeing the reasoning stated by these entities in their own words.  (The Motion to Hold Case in Abeyance can be found as the docket entry for July 29, 2026 in Case 26-1037 in the D.C. Circuit.  You will undoubtedly need PACER log-in credentials to access the document.)