Climate Change
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Can Do a Lot to Reduce Greenhouse Gas
A new report shows that FERC has extensive power to address climate change.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has captured the attention of the energy world with its proposed regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants – and for good reason. The EPA’s authority is broad and its resolve to address climate change is evident. But other federal agencies are in a position to …
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CONTINUE READINGHow the Public Views Climate Action
The public continues to support a federal action to address climate change.
A poll released last month probed American attitudes toward climate change. The poll was released after the Obama Administration issued its proposed rules for existing power plants to loud cries of protest from industry. The poll was conducted by Stanford University and Resources for the Future, a highly regarded think tank. At the time, the …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Wilderness Act and climate change
Changing the Wilderness Act to respond to climate change is a terrible idea
The Wilderness Act is one of the iconic pieces of environmental legislation, and it is 50 years old this year. It created a process and management standard by which millions of acres of relatively undeveloped federal land were protected from development and most forms of active human management. These lands are to be managed, as …
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CONTINUE READINGSolar power in North Carolina
How the solar industry became successful in North Carolina
When it comes to politics, North Carolina is not California. California is regularly and consistently Democratic at the state and national level. North Carolina is a swing state in presidential elections, has a Republican majority in its delegation to the House of Representatives, and has a state government currently dominated by Republicans. And when it …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Role of Permits in the Regulatory State
The structure of permitting programs can make a big difference for the implementation of environmental law
Author’s Note: The following post is co-authored by Eric Biber and J.B. Ruhl, the David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair of Law and the Co-Director of the Energy, Environment, and Land Use Program at Vanderbilt Law School. This post is cross-posted at Reg Blog. Reg Blog, supported by the U Penn Program on Regulation is an …
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CONTINUE READINGWhose Benefits Count?
EPA is right to include climate impacts on foreign countries in its cost-benefit analysis of regulations.
When a regulation benefits people outside the U.S., should those benefits be counted? Or should a cost-benefit analysis include only positive and negative domestic impacts? As a recent paper by Ted Gayer and Kip Viscusi highlights, EPA has been counting the benefits of restricting carbon emissions for the entire world, not just the U.S. …
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CONTINUE READINGUpdate: U.S. Supreme Court Denies Review in California Low Carbon Fuel Standard Case
Justices Decline to Address Constitutionality of LCFS
The U.S. Supreme Court today denied certiorari in closely-watched cases in which the constitutionality of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) was being challenged. The LCFS is, in turn, an integral part of the state’s multifaceted strategy to reduce California’s aggregate greenhouse gas emissions as required under AB 32, the state’s landmark 2006 climate change …
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard: Before the Supreme Court
Will the Justices Choose to Decide the LCFS’s Constitutionality?
You might think that the U.S. Supreme Court, having decided the Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA Clean Air Act case on Monday, was done for the current Term when it comes to environmental law and policy. Think again. Today the justices met in conference to decide whether to grant review in a large number of pending …
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CONTINUE READINGHow Scalia Might Have Ended the Best Hope of Killing EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Rules
The Supreme Court may have just eliminated a major legal and political risk to EPA’s greenhouse gas regulatory program
A couple of folks have already written about the UARG decision, and there is surely more to understand about the implications of the Scalia majority decision for future EPA greenhouse gas regulatory efforts. But I want to highlight one key implication of the decision for EPA’s overall greenhouse gas regulatory program. First, it is important …
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CONTINUE READINGToday’s Supreme Court Ruling: Three Key Questions
Direct implications are limited, but we’ll be reading the tea leaves for future implications.
Scholars, lawyers, and judges will be spending a lot of time dissecting today’s ruling. Overall, it’s a bit like yesterday’s World Cup game — EPA didn’t win outright but it didn’t lose either. Here are three key questions with some initial thoughts: What is the direct legal impact of the ruling? This was really …
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