Clean Air Act
Obama’s Clean Air Act 111d Rules Are Legally Required, Not an End Run Around Congress
Massachusetts v. EPA triggered the President’s Action
On Monday, President Obama is expected to release proposed regulations to cut carbon emissions from existing power plants. Leaks to date suggest that the rules, which will cover 40 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, will be ambitious and far-reaching, requiring cuts of approximately 20 percent from the electricity sector. We can already anticipate …
CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Kate Konschnik: EPA’s 111(d) Authority – Follow Homer and Avoid the Sirens
Kate Konschnik is the Director of Harvard Law School’s Environmental Policy Initiative. The views expressed in this blog post are her own. Thirty years ago, Chevron v. NRDC set the standard for judicial deference to an agency’s statutory interpretation. In that case, the Supreme Court upheld EPA’s interpretation of Clean Air Act language. This month, …
CONTINUE READINGDeconstructing Today’s U.S. Supreme Court Arguments in Utility Air Regulatory Group
The EPA Could Well Lose This Challenge to Its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Efforts
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in the most important environmental law case of the current Term: Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency. Based on those arguments–and, more importantly, the justices’ questions and comments–it appears that EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from stationary sources under the Clean Air Act’s …
CONTINUE READINGPreviewing Next Week’s Climate Change Arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court
Big Stakes and Big Players in This Year’s Biggest Environmental Case
On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the biggest environmental law case of its current Term, Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA. Legal Planet colleagues Ann Carlson and Dan Farber have already posted their thoughts on the case. Let me add mine. Utility Air Regulatory Group involves EPA’s authority to regulate stationary …
Continue reading “Previewing Next Week’s Climate Change Arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court”
CONTINUE READINGWhat Are the Possible Outcomes in U.S. Supreme Court Greenhouse Gas Case?
Court likely to rule in favor of EPA
Next Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Utility Air Regulatory Group (UTAG) v. EPA. I’ve previously described what is at stake in the case here and here and, in the interest of full disclosure, helped author a brief in support of EPA’s position. The oral arguments might begin to reveal how …
Continue reading “What Are the Possible Outcomes in U.S. Supreme Court Greenhouse Gas Case?”
CONTINUE READINGMore Musings on the Cert Petition Grant in the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Case
Does Regulating Greenhouse Gases Lead to Absurd Results and What Happens Once the Court Rules?
In follow up to my early morning post of this morning, here are a couple of additional points. 1) A related but different argument petitioners are making about why the PSD provisions don’t apply to the regulation of greenhouse gases is that the application of the provisions would lead to absurd results. The absurd results …
Continue reading “More Musings on the Cert Petition Grant in the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Case”
CONTINUE READINGThe Bush Ozone Standards and the D.C. Circuit
In an unsigned opinion released today, the D.C. Circuit largely upheld the Bush Administration’s revision of the air quality standard for ozone. The opinion can safely be described as dull reading, but it provides some guidance to EPA about the current round of standards revision that is now underway. The law requires EPA to set …
Continue reading “The Bush Ozone Standards and the D.C. Circuit”
CONTINUE READINGEPA and the social cost of carbon
This is Part I of a two-part series of posts discussing Eric Posner’s critiques of the role of cost-benefit analysis in climate regulation. The social cost of carbon (SCC, for policy wonks) represents the cost, in today’s dollars for the harm of emitting a ton of carbon dioxide equivalent gas into the atmosphere. Recently, the …
Continue reading “EPA and the social cost of carbon”
CONTINUE READINGThe Long, Slow Path to Improved Air Quality Standards
The regulatory process can be slow and tortuous. Consider the case of air quality standards. Since 1997, EPA has had separate air quality standards for fine particulates, technically called PM2.5. These tiny particles can penetrate deep into the lungs, making them a special public health concern. EPA has revisited the standard twice, in 2006 and …
Continue reading “The Long, Slow Path to Improved Air Quality Standards”
CONTINUE READINGLots of Rhetoric, Not Much New in Obama’s Climate Plan
The Obama Administration just released a “Climate Action Plan” to accompany the speech the President will give this morning at Georgetown University. I applaud the President for delivering a speech devoted exclusively to climate change. But for all the hooplah surrounding the President’s speech as “major,” the measures he’s proposed in the new plan to …
Continue reading “Lots of Rhetoric, Not Much New in Obama’s Climate Plan”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
