Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 26, 2024

In the fourth quarter of 2023, the Biden administration finalized updated procedures for conducting cost-benefit analysis and encouraging public participation in meetings about regulations. When reviewing proposed regulations, OIRA invites public input via meetings that outside parties request to present their views on the topic.

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Regulations Clean Air Act Sea Level Politics 130

Legal Planet

AUGUST 22, 2023

States and local air quality regulators have the legal authority to set particulate matter (PM), ozone, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions standards and adopt regulations for these pollutants when they are already in attainment of the national ambient air quality standards ( NAAQS ) set by the U.S.

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Regulations Ozone Air Pollution Clean Air Act 130

Legal Planet

MAY 11, 2023

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. For weeks, we’ve seen headlines about “Biden going big on regulating power plants” and “Biden’s aggressive new rule for power plants” as if it were simply a White House strategy.

Clean Air Act 207

Clean Air Act Carbon Emissions Greenhouse Fossil Fuels 207

Legal Planet

JULY 20, 2023

Does this decision increase the threat that EPA’s proposed new regulations will be struck down under this doctrine? The Court painted a picture of the loan forgiveness program that is worlds away from the regulations EPA is considering. EPA does not claim “virtually unlimited power to rewrite” the Clean Air Act.

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Clean Air Act Regulations Technology Technology 151

Legal Planet

MARCH 9, 2023

In rejecting EPA’s plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, the Court stated that “agency decisions of vast economic and political significance” (i.e.,

Clean Air Act 130

Clean Air Act Fossil Fuels Regulations Politics 130

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 10, 2023

The decline probably wasn’t due to environmental regulation. The passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act and its major 1990 Amendments don’t show up at all in a graph of coal use. Coal began to really plunge in 2012, three years before Obama’s Clean Power Plan was issued. Download as PDF

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2012 2008 Clean Air Act Renewable Energy 233

Legal Planet

JANUARY 3, 2024

And in recent years the Supreme Court has moved steadily to the right when it comes to the inevitable tension between constitutionally-protected private property rights and traditional government land use regulation. 22-859 The Jarkesy case directly involves federal regulation of securities markets–not environmental law.

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2024 Law Clean Air Act Nitrogen Oxides 147

Union of Concerned Scientists

OCTOBER 6, 2022

When Congress passes a law, it normally delegates to the relevant federal agency (or agencies) the responsibility of writing regulations to implement that law. Instead of deferring to the EPA’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act, the Supreme Court overturned the rule based on the “major questions doctrine.”.

Clean Air Act 243

Clean Air Act Regulations Politics Law 243

Legal Planet

AUGUST 24, 2023

For the first 20 years of federal regulation, Congress set the NOx standards for new cars itself. The reason may have been the high political stakes in the car industry or the relatively easier task of setting standards for new products in a single industry using a single energy process. grams per mile (gpm) for NOx.

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Ground-Level Ozone Pollution Control Clean Air Act Ozone 212

Union of Concerned Scientists

DECEMBER 1, 2022

California has a longstanding leadership role on transportation pollution, and the Clean Air Act grants the state the right to set strong vehicle emissions standards. Over 10,000 UCS supporters chimed in with EPA in support of granting California’s ability to enforce its truck regulations. Washington.

Nitrogen Oxides 230

Nitrogen Oxides Clean Air Act Fossil Fuels Ozone 230

Legal Planet

AUGUST 26, 2021

The case involved the lynchpin of the Clean Air Act, EPA’s power to set national air quality standards. The Court then held that greenhouse gases are covered by the Clean Air Act as a type of air pollutant. Among other things, the Clean Air Act gives federal protection to wetlands.

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Clean Air Act Endangered Species Act Regulations Air Pollution 246

Law and Environment

MAY 12, 2023

After weeks of hints and leaks, yesterday morning (May 11, 2023), EPA proposed a new rule regulating emissions from power plants. It was the at the core of the previous challenge to President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which the Supreme Court rejected in West Virginia v. This language, particularly the bolded text, is important.

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Greenhouse Clean Air Act Air Pollution Natural Gas 130

Union of Concerned Scientists

MAY 2, 2023

That was his way as a political leader: working tirelessly and proactively to make connections and fight to ensure everyone had the right to a safe and healthy environment. Among its provisions, the legislation will: Require consideration of cumulative impacts in permitting decisions under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.

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Air Pollution Clean Air Act Clean Water Act Fossil Fuels 333

Legal Planet

JUNE 30, 2022

In order to regulate existing power plants—especially existing coal-fired plants—EPA turned to section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. The Obama Administration’s section 111(d) regulation was known as the Clean Power Plan. Under its newly “discover[ed]” authority, Utility Air, 573 U. Background .

Natural Gas 276

Natural Gas Regulations Clean Air Act Politics 276

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 20, 2023

Multiple lines of analysis make clear that regardless of how cheap wind and solar power get, without directly addressing pollution from coal and gas plants, the country’s clean energy transition will not happen fast enough. Section 111 of the Clean Air Act constrains how EPA sets standards—but gives states wide latitude in implementation.

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Clean Air Act Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Clean Energy 192

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

On the domestic front, the head of EPA managed to maneuver the Administration into endorsing federal authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Trump rolled back over a hundred environmental regulations, including virtually all of Obama’s actions.

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Climate Change Paris Agreement Carbon Emissions Fossil Fuels 205

Legal Planet

AUGUST 14, 2023

That doctrine limits the power of administrative agencies to issue rules of “vast economic and political significance.” That’s the doctrine the Supreme Court used to strike down Obama’s Clean Power Plan in West Virginia v. The power industry’s approach is much different. That argument seems wrong to me.

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Clean Air Act Technology Technology Fossil Fuels 208

Legal Planet

JUNE 9, 2022

Should regulators take into account harm to people in other countries? Generally, cost-benefit analysis of government regulations has focused on harm within the United States. regulators to coordinate with regulators in other countries and to take the benefits of coordination into account in issuing their own regulations.

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Climate Change Clean Air Act Regulations Government 232

Legal Planet

APRIL 17, 2023

The Inflation Reduction Act is all carrots, and very few sticks. For better or worse, it’s an incentives-based law that moves away from the reliance on traditional regulation and enforcement. That’s a major departure from the environmental legislation of the 1970s—NEPA, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, to name a few.

Endangered Species Act 217

Endangered Species Act Clean Air Act Law Politics 217

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 18, 2022

The political movement culminating in the passage of the Clean Water Act was triggered by several environmental disasters in the late 1960’s that shocked Americans and motivated them to take action to clean up the nation’s heavily-polluted waterways. ” That obviously did not, and will not, happen.

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Clean Water Act Pollution Control Regulations Clean Air Act 168

Law and Environment

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

The most important issue in the case was whether the Clean Air “completely preempted” state law claims. I remain skeptical that the Court is as apolitical as justices of all political stripes would have us believe, but I certainly think that the 10 th Circuit got it right and I would both hope and expect SCOTUS to agree.

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Law Clean Air Act Greenhouse Politics 130

PA Environment Daily

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

On November 30, the Environmental Quality Board voted 15 to 2 to approve the emergency regulation setting VOC/methane emission limits for conventional oil and gas facilities. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) voted no on the regulation. Representatives for Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming) and Rep. Read more here. Read more here.

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Regulations Natural Gas 2016 Waste 92

Environment, Law, and History

MAY 6, 2022

The turning point in the book is the winter of 1971 and 1972 where Nixon began to express serious concern that he would soon face major backlash from pro-industry voters if he continued to support stiff environmental regulations. “I I have an uneasy feeling that perhaps we are doing too much,” he wrote his chief of staff, H.

Toxic Substances Control Act 93

Toxic Substances Control Act Endangered Species Act Clean Air Act Politics 93

Environment, Law, and History

AUGUST 27, 2023

Dan Farber at Legal Planet recently posted on "Cars, Smog, and EPA" An excerpt: For the first 20 years of federal regulation, Congress set the NOx [nitrogen oxides] standards for new cars itself. The initial standard, set in the 1970 Clean Air Act, was 3.1 EPA, 1973). grams per mile (gpm) for NOx.

Nitrogen Oxides 52

Nitrogen Oxides Clean Air Act Pollution Control 2004 52

Union of Concerned Scientists

JUNE 14, 2023

EN: These standards—or at least something based on the same Clean Air Act provision—have been in the works for a long time. In 2015, the EPA issued the Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon pollution from power plants, which at the time were the largest source of heat-trapping emissions in the country.

Fossil Fuels 207

Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Nitrogen Oxides Clean Air Act 207

Union of Concerned Scientists

MAY 31, 2023

In recent years, the RMP has been subject to a political tug-of-war: partially strengthened under the Obama administration and then promptly rolled back under the Trump administration. Furthermore, the proposal does not require all facilities regulated under the RMP to conduct safer technology and alternatives analyses.

2020 152

2020 Regulations Clean Air Act 2002 152

Union of Concerned Scientists

MAY 17, 2023

Sadly, the process of setting an outdoor ozone pollution standard has a long history of being undermined by political leaders under the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations. And it is a big deal when CASAC weighs in on the EPA’s scientific and policy reports for a pollutant such as ground-level ozone.

Ozone 190

Ozone Ground-Level Ozone Air Pollution Clean Air Act 190

PA Environment Daily

MARCH 8, 2024

Erie Area Is ‘Abnormally Dry’ Due To Lack Of Snow, Rain -- March 9 Pennsylvania Bulletin Now Available -- Spotlight PA: What To Know About Shapiro’s Proposed $10.3

Natural Gas 106

Natural Gas Clean Air Act Politics 2024 106

Union of Concerned Scientists

OCTOBER 4, 2023

In response, Congress put in place regulations to cut oil use from new passenger vehicles, known as the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program. Shortly thereafter, the Supreme Court ruled that EPA had the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from passenger cars and trucks under Massachusetts v.

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Electricity Clean Air Act Carbon Dioxide 2027 241

The Energy Law Blog

JULY 23, 2013

In the recent ruling, the Third Circuit held that it was reasonable for EPA to interpret Section 126(b) to be an “independent mechanism for enforcing interstate pollution control,” thereby giving EPA authority to directly regulate a specific source in an upwind state. See GenOn REMA, LLC v. 12-1022, slip op. at 29 (3d Cir. 7426(c)).

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Clean Air Act Air Pollution Pollution Control Environmental Protection 40

Environmental and Urban Economics

DECEMBER 29, 2020

Clean Air Regulations have focused on reducing the emissions of new cars, new factories and new power plants. Old cars, old factories and old power plants have often been "grandfathered" and haven't faced regulations. In this case, the cause is the new regulations and the effect is environmental progress.

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2011 Clean Air Act Regulations Air Pollution 100

Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 3, 2022

Instead, the Court has ruled that, though the agency can still regulate carbon emissions, it must do so narrowly and set standards solely based on options available at individual power plant facilities, such as efficiency measures to improve plant-level heat rates. With this decision, the Court has instead hamstrung that authority.

Climate Change 233

Climate Change Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Nitrogen Oxides 233

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

The Congressional Review Act (CRA) provides a fast-track process for canceling regulations if they hit an ideological nerve or offend a powerful special interest. Congressional Republicans are busily trying use it to cancel environmental regulations.

Regulations 194

Regulations Clean Air Act Air Pollution Politics 194

Smith Enviorment

JULY 12, 2022

Supreme Court issued a decision striking down an Obama era rule regulating carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing power plants. EPA held the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan Rule exceeded EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act. The Clean Power Plan Rule. The West Virginia v.

Clean Air Act 45

Clean Air Act Greenhouse Natural Gas Politics 45

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”). Background. Occupational Safety and Health Administration , 595 U.S. __ (2022), and Biden v.

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Carbon Emissions 2023 Clean Air Act Carbon Dioxide 130

PA Environment Daily

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

Framework Convention On Climate Change (COP27) -- Inquirer Guest Essay: Here’s What Pennsylvania Can Learn From A World Climate Meeting -- Penn State: Can Low-Grade Geothermal Energy Be Recovered From Abandoned Conventional Oil & Gas Wells? -- U.S.

Clean Air Act 64

Clean Air Act Natural Gas 2027 2022 64

Legal Planet

JULY 12, 2023

What we heard in plaintiffs’ case was not justiciable controversy, but rather a weeklong hearing of political grievances that properly belongs to the legislature, not a court of law,” said Assistant Attorney General Michael Russell. The admission says a lot about political will.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change Greenhouse Clean Air Act 206