Excerpt from:Climate Change: The Year Ahead
by Svend Brandt-Erichsen and Dustin Till
On January 2, 2011, EPA rules took effect requiring that air permits issued for new power plants and other major new and modified emission sources include limits on greenhouse gases (GHGs). The courts have refused to stay EPA’s rules, although the legal challenges to them are proceeding. Many in Congress say they want to block the rules, but they did not do so in the lame duck session, and those efforts face an uncertain future in the next Congress. The states, which actually issue the permits, are not all ready to implement GHG permitting. Texas has refused to cooperate with EPA, and EPA has responded with a move to force federal permitting for GHGs in that state effective January 2, 2011. Other states, some of which have joined in the legal challenges to the rules, are nevertheless working with EPA to implement them, in order to avoid a de facto moratorium on air permitting in their States.
EPA’s regulations, a response to the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA[1], began as a backstop and spur for Congressional action on comprehensive climate change legislation. See Marten Law Environmental News, EPA Proposes Regulating Greenhouse Gases Under Clean Air Act (April 17, 2009). But as that legislation foundered in the United States Senate earlier this year, the EPA rules emerged as the primary vehicle for national regulation of GHG emissions.
In addition to the GHG rules, other aspects of the laws governing climate change also remain in flux. In December, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal of a circuit court ruling allowing plaintiffs to bring federal common law nuisance claims against greenhouse gas emitters. The Solicitor General of the United States asked the Supreme Court to accept review and overturn the Second Circuit’s decision. Marten Law Environmental News, Solicitor General Sides with Utilities (Sept. 2, 2010).
Link to complete article:http://www.martenlaw.com/newsletter/20110103-climate-change-year-ahead
The Repuglicans in Congress, and especially the newly elected tea party candidates, believe that all federal agencies violate the constitution and should be abolished.
ReplyDeleteHang on to your hats; they might just start with the uppity EPA, clearly not authorized under the constitution...
Madness and drama are about to unfold, take a seat, it's gonna get interesting!
We had better stay on top of this and keep writing letters to the House, Senate, Solicitor General (Elena Kagan), EPA, and the President (who said we need to listen to the scientists), etc.. We need to have them focused on the environment, as they seem to be more about the jobs (at any cost?) and the economy. While the these are important, they won't matter if we have no air, food, water, etc. that is not clean or available.
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