Full Title: Avoiding the Glorious Mess: A Sensible Approach to Climate Change and the Clean Air Act
Author(s):
Publisher(s): Duke University
Publication Date: October 1, 2010
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Description (excerpt):
It is fair to say that a broad consensus has emerged among thought leaders in environmental policy that the best means to reduce the nation’s GHG emissions would be new federal legislation tailored specifically to address the problem. Thus far, however, Congress has failed to pass such a bill, despite repeated attempts. Political winds now appear to be blowing firmly in the face of comprehensive climate legislation in the near term.
In the meantime, the Supreme Court determined in 2007 that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from passenger vehicles qualify as pollutants under the existing Clean Air Act (“the Act”), thereby obligating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine whether GHGs endanger public health and welfare.2 Citing resounding scientific evidence of the harmful effects of anthropogenic GHG emissions, the EPA issued such a finding (the “endangerment finding”) in 2009.3 This chain of events now triggers a legal requirement for the EPA to regulate not only GHG emissions from passenger vehicles, but also certain large stationary sources under the current Act.