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Showing 1,485 results

Holly Doremus | October 23, 2013

Mass. v. EPA bears fruit for environmental petitioners

Court rules that EPA must decide if new water quality standards are needed to protect the Gulf of Mexico A US District Court in Louisiana recently ruled, in Gulf Restoration Network v. Jackson, that EPA must decide whether it has to impose new water quality standards for nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River watershed. Although […]

William Funk | October 17, 2013

Myths and facts surrounding the Supreme Court’s review of GHG emission permitting

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court granted six of the nine petitions challenging a DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in favor of the EPA’s rules regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. However, the Court granted review of only one aspect of the various petitions: whether the EPA’s use of vehicle emission standards to […]

William Buzbee | October 15, 2013

Regulating Existing Power Plants Under Clean Air Act 111(d) (Part I): The CAA’s Language & Structure

In late September, the EPA proposed regulation of new power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) under the Clean Air Act’s “New Source Performance Standards” (NSPS) provisions. Now an often little noticed follow-on provision—Section 111(d)— is suddenly in the spotlight. Section 111(d) requires regulation of existing sources that are in categories of polluters subject to NSPS regulation. President Obama, […]

Daniel Farber | October 11, 2013

Denial As a Way of Life

As it turns out, many of the same people who deny that climate change is a problem also deny that government default would be a problem.  No doubt there are several reasons: the fact that Barack Obama is on the opposite side of both issues; the general impermeability of ideologues to facts or expert opinion; […]

William Buzbee | October 1, 2013

The Ongoing Waters War: Understanding the Firestorm Over US EPA’s Massive Draft Report and New Army Corps and EPA Proposed Rule on Connectivity of America’s Waters

On September 17th, 2013, US EPA released a massive 331 page draft report distilling peer reviewed science regarding “connectivity” of various sorts of American water bodies with larger bodies of waters, such as rivers and lakes.   It also sent to the White House for review a draft proposed rule about how it and the Army […]

Dave Owen | September 24, 2013

Waiting for the Stormwater Rule

Last week, E&E News reported a breakdown in talks over EPA’s long- delayed stormwater rule. In 2009, in a settlement with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, EPA promised a new rule by November, 2012. That deadline has long since passed, and apparently EPA and environmental groups are at an impasse in their negotiations over a  new timeline. The […]

Alice Kaswan | September 23, 2013

EPA’s New Source Proposal: The ‘Category’ Question

On September 20, 2013 the EPA proposed new source performance standards for greenhouse gas emissions for new power plants.  Although the agency repackaged and fine-tuned an earlier proposal, issued in April 2012, it continues to hold the coal industry’s feet to the fire.  The proposal makes clear that new coal-fired power capacity cannot be built […]

David Driesen | September 20, 2013

New Source Standards for Power Plants: The Status Quo and Sensible Government

Almost every new power plant that the electric utility industry has built in recent years has been a natural gas powered plant. Industry rarely builds new coal-fired power plants anymore because gas has become much cheaper than coal. That is a very good thing. Absent rather expensive carbon capture and storage, new coal-fired power plants […]

Alexandra Klass | September 20, 2013

EPA’s Authority to Impose Emissions Regulations is Clear under the Clean Air Act

This entire week, the coal industry and electric utilities have been decrying the EPA’s proposed rule, released today, limiting CO2 emissions from new coal-fired power plants. Experts predict the proposed rule will place limits on coal-fired power plants that will make them impossible to operate in the absence of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology, […]