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Anne Havemann | July 2, 2014

CPR Issue Alert: EPA Raps Chesapeake Bay States for their Weak Restoration Commitments

Pennsylvania, the source of nearly half of the nitrogen that makes its way into the Chesapeake Bay, is falling dangerously behind in controlling the pollutant. Delaware is dragging its feet on issuing pollution-control permits to industrial animal farms and wastewater treatment plants. Maryland has fallen behind on reissuing expired stormwater permits and is not on […]

Erin Kesler | June 30, 2014

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Alice Kaswan | June 25, 2014

Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA: Little Impact on EPA Regulation of Greenhouse Gases

In Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, seven members of the Supreme Court upheld the most important feature of the EPA’s Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program: the ability to require the vast majority of new and modified sources to install the “Best Available Control Technology” for reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs).  As a consequence, eighty-three […]

Daniel Farber | June 23, 2014

Today’s Supreme Court Ruling: Three Key Questions

Direct implications are limited, but we’ll be reading the tea leaves for future implications. Scholars, lawyers, and judges will be spending a lot of time dissecting today’s ruling.   Overall, it’s a bit like yesterday’s World Cup game — EPA didn’t win outright but it didn’t lose either. Here are three key questions with some […]

Alice Kaswan | June 19, 2014

Controlling Power Plants through Clean Air Act § 111(d): Achieving Co-Pollutant Benefits

Power plants are not only one of the nation’s largest sources of greenhouse gases, they are also a significant source of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulates, and mercury, all of which have direct public health and welfare consequences. EPA’s recently proposed Clean Power Plan, which applies Clean Air Act § 111(d) to reduce greenhouse gases […]

| June 12, 2014

India Launches Sweeping Mandatory Program on Corporate Social Responsibility

With little notice in the West, India has just launched the most far-reaching corporate social responsibility (CSR) program in the world.  The CSR law, which took effect April 1, requires large and mid-sized firms to contribute at least 2% of their pre-tax profits (averaged over the previous three years) to social, health, educational, or environmental […]

Joseph Tomain | June 9, 2014

Clean Energy Politics

The EPA’s June 2, 2014 announcement of a Clean Power Plan is momentous. On the surface, its scope, complexity, potential for myriad legal challenges and, not to mention, the difficulty of gathering reliable cost and benefit data, make it so. Mothers should advise their children to grow up to be energy lawyers, not cowboys.  However, what […]

William Buzbee | June 3, 2014

EPA’s Proposed Power Plant Regs: Solid Legal Footing, Considerable Flexibility

On June 2, 2014, the United States Environmental Protection Agency issued its much awaited and debated proposed Clean Air Act Section 111(d) regulations to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing electric utility generating units, colloquially referred to as power plants.  And because the largest GHG emitters in this category are coal burning plants, such […]

Daniel Farber | June 2, 2014

The Legal Basis for the 111(d) Rules

Megan Herzog has done a great job of explaining the background of the rules and summarizing the proposal in her blog posts.  I just wanted to add a quick note about how EPA has structured its rules in light of possible legal challenges.  The fundamental issue facing EPA is how to define the “best system” for […]