EPA
“Necessary and Appropriate”
EPA has now formally proposed its response to the Supreme Court’s opinion in Michigan v. EPA
Although the Paris talks are justifiably getting the lion’s share of the attention, there have been other significant environmental actions recently. One of those involves the EPA’s effort to reduce toxic emissions from power plants (particularly coal-fired plants). The Clean Air Act gives special treatment to toxic emissions from power plants. Other sources are regulated …
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CONTINUE READINGGaping Hole in EPA’s Methane Rules
Why don’t EPA’s proposed rules to reduce methane emissions apply to existing oil and gas facilities?
In August, EPA released proposed rules to reduce fugitive methane and VOC emissions from oil and gas operations. While this is a significant action in the fight against climate change, and much needed in light of the shale-driven national drilling renaissance, there is a gaping hole in the methane rules that has environmentalists worried — …
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CONTINUE READINGExploring Potential Challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard: PART III
CCS for coal power plants, but not natural-gas power plants?
This post is the third in a mini-series (see first and second posts) exploring likely legal challenges to the New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power-plant greenhouse gas emissions under Clean Air Act § 111(b), and how those challenges might affect the Clean Power Plan. In my first post on EPA’s New Source Performance Standard …
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CONTINUE READINGIs CCS the “best” system of emission reduction for coal-fired power plants?
Exploring Potential Challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard: PART II
This post is the second in a mini-series (see first post) exploring likely legal challenges to the New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power-plant greenhouse gas emissions under Clean Air Act § 111(b), and how those challenges might affect the Clean Power Plan. In my first post on EPA’s New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for …
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CONTINUE READINGIs Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) the Biggest Threat to the Clean Power Plan?
Exploring potential challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard: PART I
This post is the first in a mini-series exploring likely legal challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power-plant greenhouse gas emissions under Clean Air Act § 111(b), and how those challenges might affect the Clean Power Plan. I will leave detailed exploration of the Clean Power Plan for later posts, but suffice …
CONTINUE READINGWhy legal challenges to the EPA Clean Power Plan will end up at the Supreme Court
Cross-posted from The Conversation. Even before President Obama announced the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan on August 3 to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, there were a number of legal challenges to block the law at its proposal stage – none of them successful. Earlier this year, the DC Circuit Court told …
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CONTINUE READINGMATS Rules Declared Invalid in Michigan v. EPA, 5-4
Opinion by Scalia Based on Meaning of “Appropriate”
The U.S. Supreme Court today struck down EPA’s rules governing toxic emissions from power plants. My first take on the opinion, by Justice Scalia, is that while the outcome is bad for the agency, the reasoning appears not to be a radical departure from existing doctrine, with one worrisome tidbit thrown in. Justice Scalia used …
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CONTINUE READINGWill Obama Get a Fourth Major Victory Tomorrow in Michigan v. EPA?
Decision Expected Tomorrow, Written by Someone Other than Scalia
Though the monumental decisions on health care and marriage equality are behind us, tomorrow remains another big day in the Supreme Court. Three cases remain undecided: Glossip v. Gross (whether Oklahoma’s execution methods are unconstitutional); Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (whether a state commission can draw Congressional electoral lines) and Michigan v. …
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CONTINUE READINGHas EPA’s Proposed NSPS Expired?
Responding to claims that EPA must withdraw its proposed rules to control power-plant GHGs under CAA § 111
Challenges to EPA’s emergent program to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under Clean Air Act section 111 continue to mount. Recently, the Attorneys General of 19 states sent a joint letter to EPA arguing that because EPA failed to finalize its proposed New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for GHG emissions within one year—as the Clean …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Case Against Sulking
States will only lose out if they refuse to cooperate with the Clean Power Plan.
Mitch McConnell has urged states to refuse to submit plans if the Clean Power Plan is upheld by the Court. He has been accused of inciting lawless behavior on the part of state governments. Let me come to his defense on this. (How often do I get to do that??) The states are under no legal obligation …
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