Editor's Summary: Creating law and policy for protection of the atmosphere is a complicated and contentious process. There are a great many stakeholders with different perspectives, and the federal government has taken a measured approach to responding to the evolving economic, technological, and scientific data on the state of the air in the United States and worldwide. Therefore, the states and the judiciary have taken on increasingly central roles as national policymakers in the areas of air pollution and climate change. In this Article, E. Donald Elliott, Bret C. Cohen, Ari G. Altman, and Sara M. Woldin explore the changes in the Clean Air Act that have occurred over the past year. The Article covers EPA standards, relevant case law, and state and regional initiatives.
E. Donald Elliott is Adjunct Professor of Law at Yale Law School and Georgetown University Law Center and a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher L.L.P., in Washington, D.C. He was formerly the Julien and Virginia Cornell Professor of Environmental Law and Litigation, Yale Law School, and Assistant Administrator and General Counsel, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He received both a B.A. and a J.D. from Yale University. He can be reached at
delliott@willkie.com. Bret C. Cohen is an associate at Willkie Farr & Gallagher L.L.P., in Washington, D.C. He received a B.S. from the College of William and Mary and a J.D. from George Washington University. He can be reached at
bcohen@willkie.com. Ari G. Altman is an associate at Willkie Farr & Gallagher L.L.P., in Washington, D.C. He received a B.A. from Princeton University, an M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a J.D. from George Washington University. He can be reached at
aaltman@willkie.com. Sara M. Woldin is a legal assistant at Willkie Farr & Gallagher L.L.P., Washington, D.C. She received a B.A. from Barnard College. She can be reached at
swoldin@willkie.com. [Editors' Note: A draft of this paper was originally distributed at the February 2007 presentation of the ALI-ABA Course of Study on Environmental Law.]
