The Gordian Knot is Not Quite Severed
The U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Massachusetts v. EPA holding that the existing Federal law authorizes EPA to regulate greenhouse gases is neither surprising nor is it an unreasonable interpretation of the Clean Air Act. After all, in the last decade, two EPA general counsels gave the same opinion. The Court’s detailed summary of the status of the scientific evidence of human-influenced climate change was both articulate and essentially what the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore have been telling us for some time. Why then is the decision such a big deal?
Mr. Holtkamp is the Manager of the Environmental Compliance Group and the Global Climate Change Group at Holland & Hart and resident in the Firm’s Salt Lake City office.
