Clean Air Act
EPA’s New Power Plant Rules Have Dropped. What Happens Next?
Media battles. Lawsuits. Stay requests. And political mayhem.
The release of Biden’s new climate regulations for power plants will unleash a maelstrom of legal and political battles. One key question: Will the Supreme Court short circuit the litigation process by staying the rules.
CONTINUE READINGThe New EPA Car Rule Doesn’t Violate the Major Questions Doctrine
They both relate to climate, but West Virginia v. EPA involved a very different regulation raising very different issues.
In West Virginia v. EPA, the Supreme Court struck down the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. The heart of the ruling was that EPA had engaged in a power grab, basing an unprecedented expansion of its regulatory authority on an obscure provision of the statute. Conservative groups have claimed since then that virtually every government regulation …
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CONTINUE READINGAmerica’s Leading Environmental Court
Hint: It’s in the southernmost state. Which is not Florida.
The state court on the cutting edge of environmental law is a long way from the major population and media centers, which may be one reason it doesn’t get much attention. It deserves more. The Hawaiian Supreme Court has been forging new paths in environmental law that may lead the way for other courts in …
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CONTINUE READINGInterstate Pollution and the Supreme Court’s “Shadow Docket”
The Court considers whether to stay an EPA plan in light of changed circumstances.
Later this month, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument about whether to stay a plan issued by EPA to limit upwind states from creating ozone pollution that impacts other states. As I wrote before the Court decided to hear the arguments, the issues here seem less than earthshaking, and for that matter, less than …
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CONTINUE READINGThe U.S. Supreme Court & Environmental Law in 2024
Numerous Key Environmental Issues and Doctrines Will Confront the Justices This Year
As we begin 2024, it’s useful to identify and assess the many environmental issues that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide this year. It seems likely that the conservative majority of the justices will erode or, perhaps, dramatically jettison longstanding principles of environmental law and policy in the coming months. Summarized below are …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Mystery of the Missing Stay Order
Why is the Supreme Court waiting for weeks to dispose of a demand for extraordinary intervention in a routine situation?
The steel industry applied for Supreme Court intervention on what they claimed was an urgent issue of vast national importance. Chief Justice Roberts requested an immediate government response. That was six weeks ago. Since then . . . crickets. No doubt you’re on the edge of your seat, wondering about the impending crisis facing the …
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CONTINUE READINGEvolving Air Quality Standards
The standards have gotten tougher. Compliance still lags.
The goal of the Clean Air Act is to achieve national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), with the primary requirement being protection of public health. As our understanding of the health effects of air pollution has improved, there has been a general trend toward tightening the standards. However, it’s very hard to keep track of …
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CONTINUE READINGReading the Tea Leaves: Biden’s and California’s Vehicle Regs at the D.C. Circuit
A leading environmental lawyer gives his perspective.
Transportation is now the source of 28% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, more than the electric power sector. The transportation sector is also a substantial source of nitrogen oxides and particulates, both of which are dangerous to human health. The Biden Administration has taken important regulatory actions bearing on these problems, with others in the …
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CONTINUE READINGCars, Smog, and EPA
Over the past fifty years, EPA has overseen incredible reductions in auto pollution.
This is part of an occasional series of posts about the evolution of pollution standards. Today’s subject is pollution control for new vehicles, which have been known to cause smog since the 1960s. The history of these pollution standards is quite distinctive. At the high temperatures in internal combustion engines, some of the nitrogen in …
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CONTINUE READINGState Air Regulations Can Go Above and Beyond National Standards
State and local regulators can and should work to reduce particulate matter, ozone, and NOx emissions even when national standards are met.
States and local air quality regulators have the legal authority to set particulate matter (PM), ozone, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions standards and adopt regulations for these pollutants when they are already in attainment of the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the federal Clean Air …
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