This symposium analyzes the role of litigation in climate change regulation, with a particular focus on the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2011 decision in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut (“AEP”). This Essay adds to that conversation by exploring the significance of AEP for U.S. federal legal approaches to regulating climate change.

The United States has yet to pass comprehensive climate change legislation, and it looks unlikely to do so in the near future. In fact, the recent legislative crisis over raising the debt limit is resulting in budget cuts for the federal agencies that focus on environmental protection and energy.2 However, despite congressional inaction, the United States has an emerging federal-level climate change regulatory regime, due in large part to the Supreme Court’s decisions on climate change.