California has adopted regulations requiring new motor vehicles to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), beginning in model year 2009. The Clean Air Act, however, generally preempts states from adopting their own emission standards for mobile sources of air pollution. In order for the regulations to go into effect, therefore, the state must obtain a waiver of the Clean Air Act's preemption from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. California requested this waiver on December 21, 2005, but EPA has yet to rule on the state's request, in part because it was waiting for the Supreme Court to decide whether greenhouse gases could be considered air pollutants under the Clean Air Act, and thus subject to EPA's regulatory authority. With that case (Massachusetts v. EPA) decided April 2, 2007, EPA held two public hearings on the California waiver request in late May, and has promised a decision on the waiver by the end of 2007. The agency is under pressure to act more quickly. The state has threatened to sue EPA if a decision is not announced by October, and Florida's Senator Nelson has submitted legislation (S. 1785) to require a decision no later than September 30. Fourteen other states have adopted California's GHG regulations. Their regulations cannot go into effect unless California is first granted a waiver, so there is broader interest and more at stake than might otherwise be the case. This report reviews the nature of California's, EPA's, and other states' authority to regulate emissions from mobile sources, discusses the applicability of that authority to greenhouse gases, and provides analysis of issues related to the California waiver request. The conditions for granting or denying a waiver request under the Clean Air Act establish four tests: whether the standards will be at least as protective of public health and welfare as applicable federal standards; whether the state's determination in this regard is arbitrary and capricious; whether the state needs such standards to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions; and whether the standards and accompanying enforcement procedures are consistent with section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act. California appears to have a strong case that it has met these tests. This report does not discuss the issue of whether California is prohibited from regulating greenhouse gases by the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA). Under EPCA, the authority to set fuel economy standards is reserved for the federal government, and specifically, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In several court cases (not yet decided), and in other venues, the auto industry has maintained that the regulation of greenhouse gases is simply another method of regulating fuel economy, and, therefore, that California's GHG standards are preempted by EPCA. Detailed discussion of this issue is beyond the scope of this report.

Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States provides a "legal playbook" for deep decarbonization in the United States, identifying well over 1,000 legal options for enabling the United States to address one of the greatest problems facing this country and the rest of humanity. The book is based on two reports by the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) that explain technical and policy pathways for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. This 80x50 target and similarly aggressive carbon abatement goals are often referred to as deep decarbonization, distinguished because it requires systemic changes to the energy economy. Legal Pathways explains the DDPP reports and then addresses in detail 35 different topics in as many chapters. These 35 chapters cover energy efficiency, conservation, and fuel switching; electricity decarbonization; fuel decarbonization; carbon capture and negative emissions; non-carbon dioxide climate pollutants; and a variety of cross-cutting issues. The legal options involve federal, state, and local law, as well as private governance. Authors were asked to include all options, even if they do not now seem politically realistic or likely, giving Legal Pathways not just immediate value, but also value over time. While both the scale and complexity of deep decarbonization are enormous, this book has a simple message: deep decarbonization is achievable in the United States using laws that exist or could be enacted. These legal tools can be used with significant economic, social, environmental, and national security benefits. Book Reviews "A growing chorus of Americans understand that climate change is the biggest public health, economic, and national security challenge our families have ever faced and they rightly ask, ''What can anyone do?'' Well, this book makes that answer very clear: we can do a lot as individuals, businesses, communities, cities, states, and the federal government to fight climate change. The legal pathways are many and the barriers are not insurmountable. In short, the time is now to dig deep and decarbonize." --Gina McCarthy, Former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator "Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States sets forth over 1,000 solutions for federal, state, local, and private actors to tackle climate change. This book also makes the math for Congress clear: with hundreds of policy options and 12 years to stop the worst impacts of climate change, now is the time to find a path forward." --Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senator, Rhode Island "This superb work comes at a critical time in the history of our planet. As we increasingly face the threat and reality of climate change and its inevitable impact on our most vulnerable populations, this book provides the best and most current thinking on viable options for the future to address and ameliorate a vexing, worldwide challenge of extraordinary magnitude. Michael Gerrard and John Dernbach are two of the most distinguished academicians in the country on these issues, and they have assembled leading scholars and practitioners to provide a possible path forward. With 35 chapters and over 1,000 legal options, the book is like a menu of offerings for public consumption, showing that real actions can be taken, now and in the future, to achieve deep decarbonization. I recommend the book highly." --John C. Cruden, Past Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice "This book proves that we already know what to do about climate change, if only we had the will to do it. The path to decarbonization depends as much on removing legal impediments and changing outdated incentive systems as it does on imposing new regulations. There are ideas here for every sector of the economy, for every level of government, and for business and nongovernmental organizations, too, all of which should be on the table for any serious country facing the most serious of challenges. By giving us a sense of the possible, Gerrard and Dernbach and their fine authors seem to be saying two things: (1) do something; and (2) it''s possible. What a timely message, and what a great collection." --Jody Freeman, Archibald Cox Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program

Examines the successes and failures of the Clean Air Act in order to lay a foundation for future energy policy.

Winner of the Julia Ward Howe Prize “The gripping story of the most important environmental law case ever decided by the Supreme Court.” —Scott Turow “In the tradition of A Civil Action, this book makes a compelling story of the court fight that paved the way for regulating the emissions now overheating the planet. It offers a poignant reminder of how far we’ve come—and how far we still must go.” —Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature On an unseasonably warm October morning, an idealistic young lawyer working on a shoestring budget for an environmental organization no one had heard of hand-delivered a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency, asking it to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from new cars. The Clean Air Act authorized the EPA to regulate “any air pollutant” thought to endanger public health. But could carbon dioxide really be considered a harmful pollutant? And even if the EPA had the authority to regulate emissions, could it be forced to do so? The Rule of Five tells the dramatic story of how Joe Mendelson and the band of lawyers who joined him carried his case all the way to the Supreme Court. It reveals how accident, infighting, luck, superb lawyering, politics, and the arcane practices of the Supreme Court collided to produce a legal miracle. The final ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA, by a razor-thin 5–4 margin brilliantly crafted by Justice John Paul Stevens, paved the way to important environmental safeguards which the Trump administration fought hard to unravel and many now seek to expand. “There’s no better book if you want to understand the past, present, and future of environmental litigation.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction “A riveting story, beautifully told.” —Foreign Affairs “Wonderful...A master class in how the Supreme Court works and, more broadly, how major cases navigate through the legal system.” —Science

When you purchase a new version of this casebook from the LIFT Program, you receive 1-year FREE digital access to the corresponding Examples & Explanations in your course area. Now available in an interactive study center, Examples & Explanations offer hypothetical questions complemented by detailed explanations that allow you to test your knowledge of the topics covered in class. Starting July 1, 2017, if your new casebook purchase does not come with an access code on the inside cover of the book, please contact Wolters Kluwer customer service. The email address and phone number for customer service are on the copyright page, found within the first few pages, of your casebook. Environmental Protection: Law and Policy welcomes Daniel Bodansky, a leading expert on global climate change and international law, as its distinguished new co-author. Completely updated and revised, the Sixth Edition offers a new chapter covering climate change and a substantially revised chapter on international environmental law. Environmental Protection: Law and Policy, now in its Sixth Edition, features a complete introduction to the history of environmental protection, laws and regulations, regulatory design strategies, and policy objectives analysis of constitutional federalism and related policy questions concerning the design and implementation of environmental protection programs an international and interdisciplinary approach that incorporates science, economics, and ethics coverage of the major federal pollution control laws--the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, CERCLA, and more two chapters on natural resource management issues, focusing on the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, but also including national forest management landmark and cutting-edge cases with explanatory text, notes and questions charts and graphics, plus numerous exercises and problems. Author website, Teacher's Manual, and annual summer Professor's Updates Completely updated, the Sixth Edition includes a new chapter on climate change that covers important scientific, policy, and program design questions coverage of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its implications for environmental assessment, common law liability, remediation of oil spills, and imposition of liability under the Oil Pollution Act a new section providing comparative analysis of remediation of chemical and oil spills under CERCLA, RCRA, and the Oil Pollution Act substantial revision of the chapter on international environmental law recent developments in preemption law important cases decided by the Supreme Court and the federal Courts of Appeals since the publication of the last edition new problems and streamlined text and note materials