air pollution authority faces Supreme Court tests

air pollution authority faces Supreme Court tests

Supreme Court takes on two high stakes cases in coming months. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the landmark Clean Air Act, first enacted in 1970.

The law was envisioned as a cooperative effort between the federal government and states in which the EPA sets standards but states have to set plans to comply. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers when the agency wants to impose more stringent standards. The EPA has support from Democratic leaning states, like Massachusetts and New York, www.jetsnflofficialauthentic.com/authentic-jalen-saunders-jersey.html and from environmental groups.

"It would be both a big deal and somewhat unsurprising if EPA Josh Huff Youth Jersey loses both Clean Air Act cases," said Richard Frank, an environmental law professor at the University of California at Davis School of Law. Such rulings would reflect a dilution of the deference that courts generally show government agencies in interpreting statutes, he added.

The cases do not challenge whether the EPA can regulate pollutants, such as greenhouse gases, but instead how it uses the Clean Air Act to regulate a wide range of them. Senate rejected a cap and trade bill in 2010. But decisions against the EPA could pose obstacles to the way it rolls out its rules.

In the first case, to be argued on Dec. 10, the nine justices will consider the legality of a rule that regulates air pollution that crosses state lines.

The second case, expected to be scheduled for oral argument in February, concerns a challenge to the Obama administration's first wave Josh Huff Womens Jersey of regulations targeting heat trapping greenhouse gases. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit determined in August 2012 that the rule was invalid on multiple grounds.

Under the worst case Jaylen Watkins Kids Jersey scenario for the government, the Supreme Court could weaken the EPA's power to bring recalcitrant states into line, legal experts said. Circuit decision stood, it would "gravely undermine" enforcement of the Clean Air Act, delaying the ability of downwind states to comply with air standards and making it nearly impossible for those states to meet deadlines.

A ruling against the EPA could also encourage states to resist other EPA proposals.

"If the Supreme Court pushes back against the EPA and says the EPA has to give the states the first chance to address the problem, that gives Jaylen Watkins Youth Jersey the states more leverage," said Jonathan Martel, a partner at law firm Arnold Porter LLP, who http://www.jetsnflofficialauthentic.com/authentic-shaq-evans-jersey... represents business interests in air pollution cases.

CLIMATE CHANGE RULES

In the climate change case, the Supreme Court agreed last month to consider a single question of the many raised by nine different coalitions of industry groups, such as the American Petroleum Institute, and 16 states, including Texas and Virginia. They appealed a June 2012 ruling by the appeals court in Washington upholding the first suite of EPA rules aimed at tackling climate change.

A loss for the EPA could remove a whole category of pollutants, not just greenhouse gases, from the so called "prevention of serious deterioration" or PSD program, which requires any new or modified major polluting facility to obtain a permit before any new construction is done if it emits "any air pollutant."

Under the program, the operators have to show that they are using the best available technology available to reduce emissions of the covered pollutants.