PSD provisions

Does Scalia’s Opinion in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA Help Protect the ACA?

The UARG majority opinion says the context and overall structure of a statute help determine the meaning of statutory terms

The tax subsidies provided under the Affordable Care Act to pay for health insurance are, of course, the subject of significant press coverage since dueling federal appeals courts came to different conclusions about who receives them this week.   The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held, in a 2-1 decision called Harbig v. Burwell, that an …

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Texas’s Unsuccessful (And Self-Defeating) Defiance of EPA

Texas has lost another round of its battle to halt EPA regulation of greenhouse gases — this time involving its effort to drag its feet on implementation of the regulations even if it could not undo them.  The effect of Texas’s action is that it lost the ability to help shape how the rules apply …

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Does Any Pollutant Mean ANY Pollutant?

It got less attention than it should because it was upstaged by the Supreme Court’s healthcare decision, but last week’s D.C. Circuit ruling on climate change was almost as important in its own way.  By upholding EPA’s regulations, the court validated the federal government’s main effort to control greenhouse gases.  To the extent that the …

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The Legal Underpinnings of EPA’s Climate Rules

The Clean Air Act is a formidably technical and complex statute — I often tell my students that it’s like the Internal Revenue Code except not as clearly written. But even those who know the statute may have been surprised by a couple of provisions that EPA is using to address greenhouse gases.

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