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Faculty Publications

University of South Carolina

Environmental Law

Offsets

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Playing Without Aces: Offset And The Limits Of Flexibility Under Clean Air Act Climate Policy, Nathan D. Richardson Jul 2012

Playing Without Aces: Offset And The Limits Of Flexibility Under Clean Air Act Climate Policy, Nathan D. Richardson

Faculty Publications

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to move ahead with regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act (CAA). Previous work has indicated that basic forms of compliance flexibility—trading—appear to be legally permissible under section III of the CAA. This Article takes a close look at more expansive and ambitious types of flexibility: trading between different kinds of sources, biomass co-firing, and above all, offsets. It concludes that most types of such extended flexibility are either legally incompatible with the CAA, or so legally problematic that EPA is unlikely to adopt them. This has important implications …


International Greenhouse Gas Offsets Under The Clean Air Act, Nathan D. Richardson Sep 2010

International Greenhouse Gas Offsets Under The Clean Air Act, Nathan D. Richardson

Faculty Publications

Offsets, and in particular international offsets, have been advanced as an important tool in climate policy, capable of significantly reducing the costs of emissions reductions. As attention turns to the existing CAA as a potential vehicle for general reduction of GHG emissions, an important question is whether regulation under the statute is compatible with international offsets. Certain regulatory programs under the CAA are likely candidates for GHG regulation, but many of them are legally incompatible with international offsets. Those programs that might permit use of international offsets have other problems that make them unpopular choices for GHG regulation. To the …