Legal Planet

MAY 30, 2024

As you can see below, Trump’s campaign to purge America of environmental regulations — particularly those impacting the fossil fuel industry — was stern and unrelenting. Replaced Obama’s Clean Power Plan with a token rule that would require coal-fired power plants to cut their carbon emissions by around 3%. 2017 February.

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Environmental Protection Paris Agreement Endangered Species Act Fossil Fuels 212

Legal Planet

JANUARY 2, 2024

The Biden Administration has issued important regulations to cut carbon emissions and air pollution from trucks and cars. Another big regulation should be out before summer and will cut emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants. What will happen to Biden’s big regulatory efforts ? Will the D.C.

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2024 Carbon Emissions Air Pollution Regulations 239

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

played a crucial role in negotiating the Kyoto Protocol, which required developed countries to cut their carbon emissions 5% below 1990 levels. The Kyoto Protocol may have led to emission reductions in Europe, but there was never any real prospect that the Senate would ever ratify the agreement. Under Clinton, the U.S.

Climate Change 213

Climate Change Paris Agreement Carbon Emissions Fossil Fuels 213

PA Environment Daily

SEPTEMBER 3, 2021

Over the last 15 years, Penn State University has cut its carbon emissions by more than 35 percent, putting the University ahead of schedule to meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gas outputs to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. The group began meeting this summer and aims to share its recommendations by the end of this year.

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Carbon Emissions Greenhouse Carbon Dioxide Electricity 103

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

Here’s an embarrassing confession: Though I had taught environmental law for 25 years at that point, I had never heard of section 111(d) until it was discussed as possible tool to limit carbon emissions. I would have voted to uphold the regulation as a reasonable if not necessary way to accomplish the statute’s purpose.

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Carbon Emissions Regulations Politics Law 204

Legal Planet

MAY 11, 2023

still does not limit carbon emissions from existing power plants, which generate 25 percent of our greenhouse gases. Today’s the day for the long-awaited release of Environmental Protection Agency regulations to tackle planet-warming pollution by the nation’s power plants. In the year 2023, the U.S.

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Clean Air Act Carbon Emissions Greenhouse Fossil Fuels 216

Legal Planet

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

As this century began, things looked optimistic, with both presidential candidates favoring reductions in carbon emissions. So far as I can tell, the first serious American effort to cut emissions was the passage of California’s Pavley Act in 2002, which mandated cuts in carbon emissions from vehicles.

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Law 2010 Carbon Emissions Regulations 270

Legal Planet

JANUARY 3, 2023

We’re going to see constant political theater in which Republicans will haul administration officials in front of Congress for abuse and pepper them with burdensome document requests. EPA regulations. EPA, the agency will have to come up with a new approach to regulating carbon emissions from existing power plants.

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Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Clean Energy Regulations 224

Legal Planet

DECEMBER 29, 2022

Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, providing $369 billion in tax credit and spending to reduce carbon emissions. The Supreme Court heard the Sackler case, which will have a huge impact on federal regulation of wetlands. It will reduce cumulative GHG emissions by an estimated 6.3 Download as PDF.

Carbon Emissions 221

Carbon Emissions Politics Clean Energy Regulations 221

Legal Planet

AUGUST 15, 2022

Subsidies indirectly promote stronger regulation. Agency regulations are typically based on which emissions reductions are feasible or on applying cost-benefit analysis. Subsidies make it cheaper for industry to reduce emissions. Federal subsidies create new national political dynamics.

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Fossil Fuels 2030 Politics Renewable Energy 254

Legal Planet

MAY 16, 2024

Unless the Court moderates its views, future regulations will face tough sledding. And would the limits be set by regulations applying to entire industries, or on a facility-by-facility basis? The case involved EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. Train, 420 U.S.

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Law Clean Air Act Clean Water Act Endangered Species Act 147

Legal Planet

JANUARY 17, 2022

In a Friday post, I sketched some thoughts about how the Supreme Court’s vaccine mandate rulings might impact EPA’s power to control carbon emissions. The Court ruled in both cases on the principle that an agency can take action of “vast economic and political significance” only it Congress has plainly authorized it to do so.

Carbon Emissions 224

Carbon Emissions Politics Regulations Fossil Fuels 224

Legal Planet

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Carbon emissions from land use change (mostly logging) are comparable to Brazil’s, though Brazil gets a lot more publicity. Economic growth has hovered around a healthy 5% annually, meaning that GDP doubles about every 15 years and that carbon emissions will also surge without vigorous climate action.

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Paris Agreement Sea Level Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions 251

Legal Planet

MAY 13, 2024

Trump recently told Big Oil executives over dinner that they should give him $1 billion in campaign donations because he planned to immediately reverse climate regulations, the New York Times and Washington Post both reported. It includes only completed actions, not proposed regulations. Energy Sector Emissions May 11, 2021.

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Paris Agreement 2024 Fossil Fuels Greenhouse 352

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

The Golden State has adopted a slew of climate change laws over the past twenty years, and an even greater number of regulations. Required the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to set standards for greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) new vehicles. Required zero carbon emissions from power grid by 2045. 2002 SB1078.

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Carbon Emissions Renewable Energy Climate Change 2002 201

Law and Environment

JUNE 16, 2021

On June 10, 2021, the Transportation Climate Initiative Program (TCI-P) states released a final model rule creating a regional cap-and-trade-program to reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector. We wrote about the draft model rule and its implementation challenges when it was released at the beginning of March.

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Politics Carbon Emissions Clean Energy Greenhouse 130

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 5, 2024

The plan calls for repealing the Inflation Reduction Act’s multi-billion-dollar funding for clean energy, repealing EPA’s keystone finding that carbon emissions are harmful, opening new areas to oil and gas drilling, and installing climate deniers in key positions in the executive branch.

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Climate Change Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Politics 173

Legal Planet

DECEMBER 30, 2021

It is also seeking to implement important new regulations of its own, such as stringent new controls on methane emissions by the oil and gas industry. In another key political development, Democrats won both of Georgia’s Senate runoff elections, given the Democrats working control of the Senate by the tiniest of margins.

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2021 Paris Agreement 2030 Carbon Emissions 221

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 30, 2023

But the result would surely be a surge in carbon emissions, dooming us to even more severe climate change. The federal government has gotten a late start in cutting US emissions anyway, due to Republican resistance. Trump would also begin the process of rolling back all the new regulations that have come out of the Biden EPA.

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Paris Agreement Fossil Fuels Politics Carbon Emissions 248

Legal Planet

JANUARY 12, 2023

EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gases, established in litigation in 2007, now seems beyond question. Emissions standards for new cars temporarily stalled under Trump but are nonetheless much tighter than they were before Obama. should not enter into any climate agreement that fails to limit emissions from developing countries.

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Paris Agreement Carbon Emissions Clean Energy 2007 211

Legal Planet

DECEMBER 14, 2023

And it may also feed into the dangerous message that there is no real difference between political parties in terms of climate change. What bothers me most about this litigation is not its likely failure but its dismissive attitude toward people who have been on the front line of climate regulation. Why is there no chance of success?

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Climate Change Carbon Emissions Regulations Conservation 241

Legal Planet

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

A third trend involves political economy. Republicans are devoting increasing firepower to attacking EV subsidies and tougher regulations for gas and diesel vehicles, seeking to delay the transition to EVs. The long-term trend is good news, but moving at speed is also important, given the urgency of cutting carbon emissions.

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Fossil Fuels 2011 Carbon Emissions Technology 250

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 2, 2023

The Federal Cabinet adopts its first climate target, a 25-30% cut in carbon emissions by 2005 under 1987 levels. Note: the estimates of 1990 emissions that I found are not entirely consistent, with one estimate closer to 1.2 Climate law makes emission targets legally binding 2019. trillion tons.]

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Nuclear Power Renewable Energy Carbon Emissions 2030 239

Union of Concerned Scientists

JUNE 14, 2023

Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new power plant carbon pollution standards that, if strengthened, would go a long way to help meet the Biden administration’s goal of slashing carbon emissions in half from 2005 levels by the end of this decade. EN: First, why are these new standards such a big deal?

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Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Nitrogen Oxides Clean Air Act 210

Legal Planet

AUGUST 18, 2022

One option, a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, gets the most attention but seems politically impossible. The closest we’ve ever come to a carbon tax is a limited fee on methane emissions under the new IRA law. If a carbon tax were politically feasible, there would be a lot to be said in its favor.

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Fossil Fuels Carbon Dioxide Politics Air Pollution 236

Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 3, 2022

The majority 6–3 decision sharply curtails the EPA’s authority to set standards based on a broad range of flexible options to cut carbon emissions from the power sector—options such as replacing polluting fossil fuels with cheap and widely available wind and solar power coupled with battery storage. carbon emissions today.

Climate Change 235

Climate Change Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Nitrogen Oxides 235

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 29, 2024

Most of these pieces were about the company’s support for a seemingly independent network of anti-regulation, “free-market” nonprofits that spread falsehoods about the reality and seriousness of climate change. See no evil I wrote more columns about ExxonMobil and its top executives than any other major source of climate lies.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change 2007 Carbon Emissions 343

Legal Planet

JUNE 30, 2022

Chief Justice Roberts’s majority opinion leaves EPA other options to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. In order to regulate existing power plants—especially existing coal-fired plants—EPA turned to section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. We didn’t dodge the bullet. Background . The Ruling.

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Natural Gas Regulations Clean Air Act Politics 278

Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 10, 2024

It also encourages badly needed reforms inside and outside of government and will help create new political coalitions. In any case, Brazil’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions and achieving climate neutrality by 2050 is conditional and depends on external funding.

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Paris Agreement Law Fossil Fuels Climate Change 216

Legal Planet

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Subsidies indirectly promote stronger regulation. Agency regulations are typically based on which emissions reductions are feasible or on applying cost-benefit analysis. Federal subsidies create new national political dynamics. Federal subsidies create new national political dynamics. Download as PDF

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2005 2030 Electricity 2004 283

Legal Planet

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

It’s also the Supreme Court that tossed out Obama’s very moderate climate regulation, the Clean Power Plan, because it was aimed at reducing the use of coal. The second reason is politics. is the “colossus” preventing a global crackdown on emissions. Eighty-five percent of the world’s carbon emissions come from other countries.

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Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Politics Regulations 197

Legal Planet

MARCH 9, 2023

It was supposed to feature binding restrictions on carbon emissions in a global treaty and federal legislation. State regulations, which had seemed liked stepping stones toward federal legislation, took on a bigger life of their own. My last blog post told the story of the original top-down approach to climate policy.

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Fossil Fuels Paris Agreement Politics Carbon Emissions 224

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 20, 2023

A multi-decade legal history, including four Supreme Court decisions, has led to unimpeachable clarity on this one point: EPA has a statutory obligation to regulate carbon emissions from power plants under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act. EPA ruling, EPA can still establish rigorous carbon emissions standards.

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Clean Air Act Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Clean Energy 196

Legal Planet

JANUARY 20, 2022

In contrast, while Trump was able to get some Obama regulations reversed by using the Congressional Review Act, the public lands and pollution regulations involved were relatively minor. He took the US back into the Paris Agreement, and pledged to slash 2005 carbon emissions in half by 2030.

Carbon Emissions 224

Carbon Emissions Paris Agreement 2030 Fossil Fuels 224

Legal Planet

MAY 17, 2021

It seems like an apt time to think about a carbon tax. Politically, the biggest problem with a carbon tax always been that it’s. It’s certainly open to question whether a carbon tax is the ideal policy tool. A carbon tax can also be implemented much more quickly. It has some policy strengths.

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Politics Carbon Emissions Regulations Climate Change 167

Legal Planet

AUGUST 26, 2021

This gave EPA the power to impose limits on carbon emissions by vehicles and industry. Lucas appeared at the time to be the start of a sweeping constitutional attack on environmental and land use regulations. At the time, a regulation said all wetlands used by migratory water birds were under federal jurisdiction.

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Clean Air Act Endangered Species Act Regulations Air Pollution 246

Law and Environment

AUGUST 17, 2023

In March 2022, the SEC proposed amendments to Regulations S-X that would both enhance and standardize public companies’ climate-related disclosures (“Climate-Related Disclosures”). purchased energy and electricity), and for some companies to report on information related to “Scope 3” carbon emissions (i.e., Background.

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Carbon Emissions 2023 Clean Air Act Carbon Dioxide 130