Climate Change

EPA Releases Proposed Endangerment Finding on Emission of Greenhouse Gases

EPA released today its much-anticipated proposed endangerment finding for greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions from new motor vehicles and engines in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 2, 2007, decision in Massachusetts v. EPA. The proposed finding is issued under Section 202(a)(1) of the Clean Air Act, which requires EPA to determine whether emissions from new vehicles and new vehicle engines “cause or contribute, to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.” In the proposal EPA broadly defines Section 202(a)(1) to mean that the endangerment determination may include an assessment of current and future risks rather than being limited to proof of actual harm.

EPA Publishes Proposed Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule

EPA published today a 285-page proposed rule to require reporting of greenhouse gases (“GHGs”) from all sectors of the economy. The proposed rule will require reporting of GHG emissions from sources representing approximately 85 to 90 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. The GHGs covered by the proposed rule are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and certain other fluorinated compounds. The proposed rules are required by the 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act, signed by President Bush on December 7, 2007.

Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rules Proposed by EPA

On March 10, 2009, EPA released its long-awaited proposed rule requiring reporting of greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions from sources representing approximately 85 to 90 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. The proposed rule was, required by the 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act, signed by President Bush on December 7, 2007. The Act requires EPA to promulgate within 18 months “a final rule . . . to require mandatory reporting of GHG emissions above appropriate thresholds in all sectors of the economy of the United States.” The statute required a proposed rule within nine months, or September 7, 2008, a deadline which EPA obviously missed. The statutory deadline for the final rule is June 7, 2009.

EPA Climate Change ANPR Released

On Friday, July 11, the Environmental Protection Agency released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“ANPR”) seeking comment on a large number of issues concerning regulation of greenhouse gas emissions (“GHGs”) under the Clean Air Act (“CAA”). The ANPR was ostensibly issued in response to the mandate of the U.S. Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA, in which the Court held that carbon dioxide (“CO2”) is a regulated pollutant for purposes of the mobile source provisions of the CAA and that EPA is required to make a determination as to whether emissions of CO2 from mobile sources endanger human health or the environment.