Commentary

US Supreme Court's Environmental Decision

Jody Freeman, Director of the Harvard Law School Environmental Law Program, gave a short and sweet description of this spring's US Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts vs. EPA. 

Massachusetts and 11 other states (California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington) sued the EPA to regulate CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.  Sulfur dioxide, mercury and other pollutants have been successfully regulated and reduced under the Clean Air Act but the EPA claimed that it did not have the authority to regulate CO2 and that even if it did, it would not.

Professor Freeman described the 3 key findings in the Supreme Court's decision.

1. That states can sue the EPA to force compliance of environmental laws.
2. That CO2 is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act criteria.
3. The EPA cannot refuse to regulate pollutants such as CO2 given the reasons claimed by the EPA: that it would interfere with US Foreign Policy and that the EPA disagrees with the policy of regulation.

The decision does not force the EPA to regulate CO2 but the decision eliminates a whole host of reasons that global warming skeptics could use for not regulating CO2 and fighting global warming.

And Professor Freeman points out the Supreme Court's decision keeps the pressure on the Federal Government.  The Bush Administration has not acted to fight global warming and in the leadership gap created, the states have taken a series of steps that have been resisted by the EPA and by automobile manufacturers, among others. 

For example, had Massachusetts lost this case in front of the Supreme Court, California would have been more vulnerable to losing its case with the automobile manufacturers that are trying to block California's stricter gas mileage standards.

State Leadership in the Fight Against Global Warming

Ian Bowles, Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, described how in the absence of action by the Bush Administration, US States are taking a number of positive steps.  Here are a couple of examples:

1. Establishing or strengthening renewable portfolio standards (RPS).  An RPS is a legally-binding target for how much electricity in the state must come from renewable sources (solar, wind, biomass, etc.) Illinois's RPS increases from 2% today to 25% by 2025.
2. Connecticut has waived its sales tax on vehicles that get better than 40mpg.
3. Florida has a green building construction law.