Combating Climate Change with Section 115 of the Clean Air Act

Combating Climate Change with Section 115 of the Clean Air Act
Author: Michael Burger
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2020-10-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 178643461X

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Editor Michael Burger brings together a comprehensive assessment of how one statutory provision – Section 115 of the Clean Air Act, “International Air Pollution” – provides the executive branch of the U.S. government with the authority, procedures, and mechanisms to work with the states and private sector to take national climate action.

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

Legal Pathways to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Under Section 115 of the Clean Air Act
Author: Michael Burger
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

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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, or a given industrial or economic sector. Rather, it grants EPA and the states broad latitude to address international air pollution comprehensively through the Clean Air Act's State Implementation Plan process, increasing administrative efficiency and reducing burdens on regulated companies. EPA and the states could use the provision to establish an economy-wide, market-based approach for reducing GHG emissions. Such a program would provide one of the most effective and efficient means to address climate change pollution in the United States.

Global Climate Change and U.S. Law

Global Climate Change and U.S. Law
Author: Michael Gerrard
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-09-12
Genre: Climatic changes
ISBN: 9781639052196

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The legal landscape around climate change is complex, unstable, and expanding. Scientists continue to publish new findings, policy makers regularly adopt new regulations, and petitioners file new litigation, nationwide and around the world. Hence the need for this third edition. Most of it is completely new, and the few chapters carried over from the second edition have been thoroughly updated.

Climate Change Confusion and the Supreme Court

Climate Change Confusion and the Supreme Court
Author: Jason Scott Johnston
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

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In the spring of 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must promulgate automobile tailpipe greenhouse gas emission standards under Section 202 of the Clean Air Act (CAA). American environmentalists hailed the Supreme Court's decision as an important victory in the battle to curb global warming. This article argues to the contrary that: 1) a large body of economic work demonstrates that the likely geographic and temporal pattern of costs and benefits to the U.S. from climate change bears no resemblance to the pollution problems that Congress intended to deal with in the Clean Air Act - with moderate climate change predominantly benefiting, rather than harming, the U.S. - so that that the Clean Air Act cannot reasonably be interpreted to cover greenhouse gas emissions; 2) By effectively forcing the EPA to regulate ghg emissions under a statute that was never intended to cover the very different problem of climate change, the Court has changed the policy status quo in a way that makes socially desirable federal climate change legislation less likely; and 3) given the global nature of the greenhouse gas emission problem, unilateral emission limits in the U.S. are likely to be worse than ineffective, in that they will likely have the perverse effect of lessening the incentive for latecomers to climate change regulation (such as China) to themselves take costly action to reduce such emissions. The article concludes by arguing that a sensible formulation of U.S. climate change policy would involve measures to respond both to the long-term threat to the U.S. and the short-term threat to developing countries. There are policy instruments appropriate to these goals: large increases in subsidies for research and development into clean coal and alternative fuels to respond to the long term threat to the U.S.; redirecting foreign aid to fund climate change adaptation in developing countries to respond to the short term threat to developing countries.

Climate Change and the Clean Air Act

Climate Change and the Clean Air Act
Author: Lisa Heinzerling
Publisher:
Total Pages: 59
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:

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In 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency formally refused to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, explaining that it had no authority under the Clean Air Act to undertake such regulation and that it would, in any event, decline to exercise such authority for various policy reasons. In Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court rejected EPA's decision on both counts. The Court held that the Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate greenhouse gases and it narrowly circumscribed the circumstances under which the agency could refuse to decide whether greenhouse gases may endanger public health or welfare. This Article, written before the Supreme Court's decision was announced and based on the author's briefs for petitioners in the case, examines in detail the reasons why EPA's views on statutory authority and discretion were incorrect.

Staving Off the Climate Crisis

Staving Off the Climate Crisis
Author: Teresa Clemmer
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:

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The challenge before us is unprecedented. Global climate change demands a transformation of our entire economy and energy system within just a few short years in order to preserve a healthy natural world and a sustainable way of life for our children and grandchildren. The good news is that the technological solutions are well within reach. The bad news is that our system of democratic governance in the United States is so paralyzed that it may be incapable of meeting this challenge. Nevertheless, we already have some powerful tools that will enable us to make substantial progress toward a brighter future. The Clean Air Act is a broad federal statute consisting of many different programs and approaches. Among these are fair, effective, and flexible regulatory authorities that can be used right away to move technological solutions off the shelf and into common usage. In particular, under sections 111 and 202 of the Clean Air Act, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has authority to directly regulate stationary and mobile sources on a sector-by-sector basis. This Article surveys the emission reduction strategies available in key industries and mobile source categories, and it concludes that EPA can quickly reduce emissions by approximately 24% using the sectoral approach. This will put us on the path toward the necessary 50% to 85% reductions overall, and it will allow us to keep moving forward while the more difficult transformation of our energy system is underway. A key advantage of the sectoral approach is its straightforward legal framework. With clear statutory guidelines, EPA's regulations are not likely to get caught up in protracted litigation. The sectoral approach also promotes fairness by ensuring a level playing field across each industry, and it promotes efficiency by focusing on outcomes and motivating industry to find innovative ways of achieving them. In short, this Article urges EPA to focus its attention on regulating greenhouse gas emissions on a sector-by-sector basis under the Clean Air Act. Moreover, in light of the urgency of the climate crisis, this Article also urges Congress to reject any legislative proposal that would strip EPA of these effective regulatory tools.

Research Handbook on Climate Change Mitigation Law

Research Handbook on Climate Change Mitigation Law
Author: Reins, Leonie
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 555
Release: 2022-09-08
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1839101598

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This meticulously revised second edition provides a comparative overview of climate change mitigation issues and international regulatory approaches, bringing together expert contributors to analyse key sectors such as energy, transport, cities, industry, land use, agriculture and waste.

Tackling Climate Change Through Livestock

Tackling Climate Change Through Livestock
Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Total Pages: 139
Release: 2013
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 925107920X

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Greenhouse gas emissions by the livestock sector could be cut by as much as 30 percent through the wider use of existing best practices and technologies. FAO conducted a detailed analysis of GHG emissions at multiple stages of various livestock supply chains, including the production and transport of animal feed, on-farm energy use, emissions from animal digestion and manure decay, as well as the post-slaughter transport, refrigeration and packaging of animal products. This report represents the most comprehensive estimate made to-date of livestocks contribution to global warming as well as the sectors potential to help tackle the problem. This publication is aimed at professionals in food and agriculture as well as policy makers.

Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century

Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2019-03-08
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0309476550

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Environmental engineers support the well-being of people and the planet in areas where the two intersect. Over the decades the field has improved countless lives through innovative systems for delivering water, treating waste, and preventing and remediating pollution in air, water, and soil. These achievements are a testament to the multidisciplinary, pragmatic, systems-oriented approach that characterizes environmental engineering. Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges outlines the crucial role for environmental engineers in this period of dramatic growth and change. The report identifies five pressing challenges of the 21st century that environmental engineers are uniquely poised to help advance: sustainably supply food, water, and energy; curb climate change and adapt to its impacts; design a future without pollution and waste; create efficient, healthy, resilient cities; and foster informed decisions and actions.

Glacial

Glacial
Author: Chelsea Henderson
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2024-08-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1684429595

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It took nearly sixty years for a meaningful climate change bill to run the political gauntlet from Capitol Hill to the Oval Office. Why? From mavericks to party standard-bearers, U.S. Senators, members of the House of Representatives, and presidential candidates have campaigned for four decades espousing their intentions to address the impacts of climate change. Glacial: The Inside Story of Climate Politics is the first Inside-the-Beltway account to lay bare the machinations of what went wrong in Washington—how and why our leaders failed to act on climate change as mounting scientific evidence underscored the urgency to do so. Glacial tells a story of behind-the-scenes infighting and power struggles that blocked or derailed federal legislative progress on climate change, even in times of bipartisanship and with polls showing most Americans favored action. The good news today is that public opinion is at its highest level of support for climate action, from corporate boardrooms embracing sustainability for business reasons to movements led by passionate younger generations who can't afford to stand mute because it is they who will inherit the worst environmental catastrophes. If the missed opportunities in Washington are instructive, the path to doing so is clear. Our elected officials must use their offices not solely for the power and prestige it bestows upon them personally, but for the public good—and they must do so while there is still time.