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Recentering Environmental Law: A Thought Experiment

Legal Planet

In 1965, scientists sent LBJ a memo mentioning the risks of climate change. First of all, we would have had a very different understanding of the air pollution problem. We thought that the key to reducing air pollution was to require better pollution control devices. Download as PDF

Law 293
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Third Circuit Confirms EPA’s Approval of Pennsylvania’s Air Pollution Plan

MGKF Law

On July 25, 2023, a Third Circuit panel rejected an environmental group’s challenge of federally approved changes to Pennsylvania’s State Implementation Plan (“SIP”), holding that the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) emissions-based analysis did not violate the Clean Air Act (“CAA”).

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Industry’s Tactics to Expose You to More Soot Pollution

Union of Concerned Scientists

Among the commenters was my colleague Sam Wilson , who passionately and effectively called on the EPA to follow the science and enact the strongest air pollution standards to protect people’s health. pollution, half of the deaths are attributable to the burning of fossil fuels. pollution is, even at low levels of concentration.

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Environmentalism and the Supreme Court

Legal Planet

The case involved the lynchpin of the Clean Air Act, EPA’s power to set national air quality standards. It was the first case in which the Court was confronted with the issue of climate change. The Court then held that greenhouse gases are covered by the Clean Air Act as a type of air pollutant.

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State Air Regulations Can Go Above and Beyond National Standards 

Legal Planet

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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Climate-Related Lawsuits Continue to Return to State Courts: Understanding The Latest Ruling from District of Columbia v. Exxon Mobil Corporation

The Energy Law Blog

In doing so, the court found itself “in accord with the other courts of appeals, which have unanimously found there is no federal jurisdiction where state or local governments have brought state-law actions against energy companies for conduct relating to climate change.” District of Columbia v. Exxon Mobil Corporation, et al.,

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EPA’s Power Plant Carbon Rules Are Critical—and Complex. Here’s What to Know, and What to Watch.

Union of Concerned Scientists

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. One critical tool for forcing that reckoning comes from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).