Obama Administration Efforts to Control Stationary Source Greenhouse Gas Emissions Through Rulemaking

December 2011
Citation:
41
ELR 11127
Issue
12
Author
Tom Mounteer

The Obama EPA has put forth several actions to regulate the emissions of greenhouse gases from stationary sources. These regulatory developments take place in the context of failed efforts to pass comprehensive federal legislation and the Supreme Court’s death blow to federal common-law remedies. Two of the Administration’s regulatory initiatives—the Endangerment Finding and the embrace of greenouse gases in the prevention of significant deterioration program—are embroiled in litigation, the outcome of which may not be known for some time. The Administration’s new source performance standard for electric generating units has yet to be proposed. Actual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions achieved through these rules will not be knowable for years.

Tom Mounteer is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Paul Hastings, where he co-chairs the firm’s environmental practice, and adjunct professor in the masters in environmental law program at George Washington University Law School. He is the author of the Climate Change Deskbook (Envtl. L. Inst. 2009).

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