Washington AG Filed Motion to Dismiss a Challenge against the State’s Cap-and-Trade Allowance Policies

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a motion to dismiss a challenge against the state’s method of distributing of cap-and-trade allowances. The challenge was brought by Invenergy, the owner of the largest natural gas plant in Washington state. In the motion, AG Ferguson argued that the way the state was distributing cap-and-trade allowances—which included providing utilities with “no-cost” allowances in order to protect consumers and prevent utilities from “duplicative statutory mandates”—was in line with Washington’s Climate Commitment Act, and did not violate the dormant Commerce Clause and Equal Protection Clause, as the plaintiffs claimed. AG Ferguson urged the federal district court to dismiss the complaint.