Climate Change, the Clean Air Act, and Industrial Pollution (original) (raw)

Summary: Combating Climate Change with Section 115 of the Clean Air Act

2020

The scale and scope of the climate crisis calls for comprehensive nationwide efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. New legislation, passed by Congress and signed by the President, is the first and best option for climate action at the federal level. This could be a version of the Green New Deal, a carbon tax, sectoral limits, an emissions cap with compliance trading, or another approach. What matters most is that the legislation effectively cut the greenhouse gas emissions driving the world’s temperatures ever higher. Unfortunately, the prospect for federal legislation is uncertain, while strong and decisive action is needed now. A president committed to tackling climate change will need a backup plan in case Congress remains gridlocked, one that relies on existing statutes to achieve the deep emission reductions the science says we need

Recent Clean Air Act Developments—2006

2007

Editors’Summary: Creating law and policy for protection of the atmosphere is a complicated and contentious process. There are a great many stakeholders with different perspectives, and the federal government has taken a measured approach to responding to the evolving economic, technological, and scientific data on the state of the air in the United States and worldwide. Therefore, the states and the judiciary have taken on increasingly central roles as national policymakers in the areas of air pollution and climate change. In this Article, E. Donald Elliott, Bret C. Cohen, Ari G. Altman, and Sara M. Woldin explore the changes in the Clean Air Act that have occurred over the past year. The Article covers EPAstandards, relevant case law, and state and regional initiatives.

Federal Greenhouse Gas Control Options from an Enforcement Perspective

2010

I. OVERVIEW OF GREENHOUSE GAS CONTROL OPTIONS............................................ 89 A. Cap-and-Trade Programs ........................................................................... 89 1. The Waxman-Markey Bill..................................................................... 94 2. The Kerry-Lieberman Bill .................................................................... 96 3. The Cantwell-Collins Bill ..................................................................... 98 B. Regulating Greenhouse Gases Using a Carbon Tax................................. 100 C. Regulating Greenhouse Gases Under the Clean Air Act .......................... 102 1. Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) Permits..................... 103 2. New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) ..................................... 104 3. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) ........................... 106 4. National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) ...........

Legal Pathways to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Under Section 115 of the Clean Air Act

2016

Under President Barack Obama the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has promulgated a series of greenhouse gas emissions regulations, initiating the necessary national response to climate change. However, the United States will need to find other ways to reduce GHG emissions if it is to live up to its international emissions reduction pledges, and to ultimately lead the way to a zero-carbon energy future. This paper argues that the success of the recent climate negotiations in Paris provides a strong basis for invoking a powerful tool available to help achieve the country’s climate change goals: Section 115 of the Clean Air Act, titled “International Air Pollution.” This provision authorizes EPA to require states to address emissions that contribute to air pollution endangering public health or welfare in other countries, if the other countries provide the U.S. with reciprocal protections. The language of Section 115 does not limit the agency to regulating a particular source-type...

Global Climate Change and the National Environmental Policy Act

USFL Rev., 2007

156 UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO LAW REVIEW [Vol. 42 impacts of warming and the most effective means of mitigating such impacts.6 Notably, the United States reportedly contributed to the most recent IPCC report.7 Perhaps even more significantly, at the June 2007 Group ...

Climate Change Action Without Congress

2013

The most important authority derives from the Clean Air Act (CAA). As the Supreme Court held in 2007 in Massachusetts v. EPA, greenhouse gases (GHGs) fall within the definition of “air pollutant” under the CAA, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to regulate them. Exercising that authority, EPA in December 2009 issued an “endangerment finding” that GHGs endanger public health and welfare (a prerequisite to further action). It then proceeded to promulgate a series of regulations, including standards for GHG emissions for automobiles, and rules concerning the prevention of significant deterioration program for new and modified stationary sources. These actions were the subject of more than 100 challenges filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. That court combined the cases and, on June 26, 2012, dismissed them all, finding that EPA was acting well within its statutory authority. Unless the Supreme Court grants certiorari, EPA now ...

TRANSFORMATION OF CONGRESSIONAL LAWMAKING BY THE CLEAN AIR ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1970 AND ITS EFFECTS

https://ssrn.com/abstract=3706466 Science Research Network , 2020

From the 19th Century to the early 1970s the U.S. was consistently at the frontier of publicly relevant technology and policy advances. The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 (CAA) continued this tradition. However, the CAA transformed conventions for Congressional lawmaking in ways that had unintended negative effects on federal government operations, environmental management, and U.S. society. The CAA’s bipartisan framers came together at a time of environmental crisis and skepticism over federal regulators’ stewardship over the nation’s environment. Manufacturing and industry were prime sources of pollution. The framers feared that the formers’ economic and political power would influence regulators. The CAA therefore broke previous norms for lawmaking by giving the Environmental Protection Agency comprehensive national authority over air pollution and prescribing operational detail. In effect, Congress became the sheriff and the Environmental Protection Agency became the summons server for environmental policy. With powerful teeth, the CAA of 1970 and subsequent laws influenced by CAA precedents achieved rapid progress in controlling pollution. However, they replaced trust in federal agencies and cooperation between government and the private sector by regulations and punitive provisions, arousing antagonism in the business community. The results included deindustrialization, with mass exodus of business from manufacturing; litigiousness; barriers to innovation in environmental technology and policy; and perpetual battle over environmental regulation. Attempts by business and conservative-linked groups to reform regulatory policy were unsuccessful because they mainly sought inhibitions on the regulatory process. They failed to consider deep concerns of the environmental community and fundamental flaws in the regulatory system.