EPA
Clean Air and the Turbocharged Shadow Docket
Guest Contributors Sean Donahue & Megan Herzog write that coal advocates offer troubling new grounds for the Supreme Court to stay EPA’s carbon pollution standards.
The Supreme Court is currently considering eight emergency (or “shadow docket”) requests from coal advocates (coal-mining companies, coal-burning electricity generators, and allied State attorneys general led by West Virginia) to bar implementation of new EPA rules limiting carbon pollution from coal- and gas-burning power plants while legal challenges to the rules proceed—what is known as …
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CONTINUE READINGIs Loper v. Raimondo Really the Power Grab Commentators Assume?
The Supreme Court has already grabbed power from agencies through the major questions doctrine.
Headlines about today’s decision in Loper v Raimondo overturning the 40 year-old decision in Chevron v NRDC that granted agencies deference in their interpretation of ambiguous statutes focus on the “massive power grab,” the decision’s “sweeping” nature and call it a “blow” to the administrative state. My view may be idiosyncratic but I don’t view …
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CONTINUE READINGEverywhere and Forever All at Once: PFAS and the Failures of Chemicals Regulation
Environmental law helped create a world awash in toxic chemicals. It’s time to think about how regulation can operate as a form of green industrial policy for chemicals.
This post was originally published on the Law & Political Economy Blog as “How Environmental Law Created a World Awash in Toxic Chemicals.” Earlier this spring, the Biden administration finalized two important rules targeting a small subset of so-called forever chemicals: one establishing drinking water standards for six such chemicals and the other designating two …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Unique Legal Context of EPA Methane Regulations
Three separate congressional actions intersect to support the regulations.
The government’s efforts to control methane have followed a complicated path, involving three different congressional actions: section 111 of the Clean Air Act, which allows EPA to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases; a congressional override of an earlier regulatory action; and a newer statute that creates a fee on methane emissions. The upshot is to …
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CONTINUE READINGElection 2024: Climate Action vs. Radical Deregulation
Voters should consider the radical, right-wing deregulation agenda that would await on Day One of a second Trump administration.
The Iowa Caucuses are 12 days away. The South Carolina Republican Primary comes 5 weeks later. And just two weeks after that is Super Tuesday. In the lead up to all these primary contests, anti-democracy candidate Donald Trump continues to march toward capturing the GOP nomination with a commanding lead in national polls. While headlines …
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CONTINUE READINGCan we make a map for wastewater innovation?
…or even a guidebook?
During one phase of my misspent youth, I travelled by bicycle in search of adventure and insight. (Hang with me, this relates to environmental management, and I’ll get to that soon.) On one tour, I started in Vietnam, ending up in Pakistan a couple years later, having made some detours and added other means of …
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CONTINUE READINGSackett and the Dangers of a New ‘Clear-Statement Rule’
The Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. EPA will be bad for the nation’s wetlands. It is just as bad for democracy.
The Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. EPA limits the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to defend a large portion of the nation’s wetlands and waterways from pollution. The decision strips key environmental protections from the Clean Water Act by narrowly defining which bodies of water can be regulated under the Act, making it the most …
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CONTINUE READINGFull Speed Ahead? Biden Administration Set to Release New CAFE Standards
As E&E News reported today, the Biden administration is expected to announce tomorrow new fuel economy and tailpipe emissions standards for light-duty vehicles model years (MY) 2023 through 2026. The move is long-awaited; one of the Biden administration’s first actions was to direct EPA and NHTSA by executive order to revise the Trump era version …
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CONTINUE READINGBiden’s Green Team
Here are the six who will lead the way on environment and energy issues.
Biden’s choices to head particular agencies have trickled out over the past few weeks. It’s only when you put them together that you get a sense of the overall time. It’s a very diverse group, all of whom seem to have strong environmental commitments. Pete Buttigieg, Department of Transportation. Buttigieg is a well-known figure from …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Justice and Climate Action
Are the two in conflict? What should we make of the attacks on Mary Nichols?
Mary Nichols, the frontrunner to head EPA, was knocked out of contention earlier this week. She would have been a formidable choice to implement Biden’s climate policies. For that reason, it wasn’t clear whether she would have the votes to get through the narrowly divided Senate. But she was ultimately taken down by the fierce …
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