Environmental Protection Agency

Another Law Professor to Washington

We’ve just received word that Rob Verchick has been appointed the Deputy Associate Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation (OPEI). OEPI is the main policy arm of the EPA, responsible for supervising the rulemaking process and pushing innovative strategies, among other things. He will report to Associate …

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New EPA Greenhouse Gas Rulemaking Not Quite What it Seems

EPA is proposing to tailor the major source applicability thresholds for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and title V programs of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and to set a PSD significance level for GHG emissions. This proposal is necessary because EPA expects soon to promulgate regulations …

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More on the Chamber of Commerce’s extraordinary demand for a “Scopes trial” on climate change

UPDATE: regarding the standard of judicial review of any on-the-record hearing (discussed below), see the comments: commenter Steve Taber disagrees with my initial analysis, and he may be right (though I don’t have time to look into it further today). ORIGINAL POST: Holly has written a thoughtful post discussing the meritlessness and cynicism of the …

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Climate change breaking news: EPA grants California waiver to regulate GHG emissions from cars

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken an important step toward addressing climate change and improving our nation’s automobile fuel economy, by granting California and at least 14 other states a waiver allowing them to regulate automobile greenhouse gas emissions.  This was not unexpected, given the recent passage of federal legislation with standards similar to …

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New EPA air toxics report presents sobering assessment of cancer risk

A new U.S. EPA report released today presents a scary picture of our exposure to hazardous pollutants in our air.  The National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment for 2002, which analyzed health data based on chronic exposure to air toxics for 124 pollutants for which those data are available.  (The assessment’s name is potentially confusing; the report …

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Waxman-Markey May Lower Household Costs

In another report issued today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency counters the predictions of some critics of climate change legislation by concluding that the  Waxman-Markey bill would not lead to higher energy costs for consumers.  In fact, the EPA concludes that household energy costs actually may go down.  In one scenario, each household on average …

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“Smoking gun” OMB memo on EPA climate change rulemaking is not what it seems

As Dan has mentioned, there has been a bit of a dust-up over a document in EPA’s rulemaking docket relating to EPA’s recent finding that greenhouse gases pose an endangerment to public health and welfare.  As Dan notes, the memo, apparently originating at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is harshly critical …

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Court ruling will force EPA to take action it was required to take in 1983 (!)

It is not unusual for the federal government to neglect its statutory duties under federal environmental laws; when it does, citizen suits are the primary means of ensuring that the government follows the law.  Sometimes federal agencies’ inaction results from lack of resources, and sometimes it results from intentionally interpreting its duties in a minimalist manner.  In some …

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