On April 21, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order declining to review a jury’s eye-popping $104 million award against Exxon Mobil for alleged pollution-related injuries that have not yet happened and may never even occur. The case arises from a 2003 suit brought by the City of New York, alleging that Exxon (and others) contaminated groundwater in Jamaica, Queens with the gasoline additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE). The denial of certiorari was a setback for WLF, which filed a brief in the case arguing that settled principles of conflict preemption precluded the court below from imposing liability because Congress, under the Clean Air Act, required Exxon to use an “oxygenate” in its gasoline, and the jury found that EPA-approved MTBE was the safest, feasible means of complying with the federal mandate. WLF also argued that the City’s suit was not “ripe” because the City did not establish a sufficiently imminent injury of the kind necessary for standing.