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Columbia Law School

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Series

2010

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Law

Epa's Impending Greenhouse Gas Regulations: Digging Through The Morass Of Litigation, Gregory E. Wannier Jan 2010

Epa's Impending Greenhouse Gas Regulations: Digging Through The Morass Of Litigation, Gregory E. Wannier

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

As the U.S. Congress has failed to pass meaningful climate legislation, the EPA has initiated a series of regulations under the Clean Air Act designed to recognize greenhouse gases as endangering human health and welfare, and set greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicle fleets and for major stationary sources. Unsurprisingly these efforts have been challenged in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. This paper discusses both the substantive and procedural issues surrounding the cases, all of which merit attention: in the absence of viable climate legislation these decisions will have important bearing on the extent to which the United States …


Cap-And-Trade Under The Clean Air Act?: Rethinking Section 115, Hannah Chang Jan 2010

Cap-And-Trade Under The Clean Air Act?: Rethinking Section 115, Hannah Chang

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Section 115 of the Clean Air Act, addressing international air pollution, is widely-dismissed as a viable avenue for mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) because of a misplaced assumption that National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) must be established for GHGs before Section 115 authority can be exercised for GHGs. This paper explores the statutory language and legislative history of Section 115 to refute this conventional view, and argues that Section 115 can play a role in facilitating the establishment of a cap-and-trade program for GHGs without the establishment of NAAQS for GHGs.


"It's Not Easy Being Green": Local Initiatives, Preemption Problems, And The Market Participant Exception, Michael Burger Jan 2010

"It's Not Easy Being Green": Local Initiatives, Preemption Problems, And The Market Participant Exception, Michael Burger

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This Article considers whether the market participant exception should be interpreted to exempt local climate change and sustainability initiatives from the "ceilings" imposed by existing environmental laws and pending federal climate change legislation. In the decades-long absence of federal action on climate change, local governments – along with the states – positioned themselves at the forefront of climate change and sustainability planning. In fact, state and local actions account for most of the nation's greenhouse gas reduction efforts to date. Yet, front-running localities are being limited by a preemption doctrine that fails to account for both the motives behind their …