by Hannah McCrea and Matthew Cagle, Constitutional Accountability Center
There have been a few important developments in the deluge of administrative and legal challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s finalization of the “endangerment finding” — the formal finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare.
To review, the EPAs’ December 2009 completion of the long-awaited “endangerment [...]

Climate Wire (via The New York Times) reports today that the resolution to strip the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, introduced earlier this year by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), will face a unanimous consent vote on the Senate floor on June 10.
The vote has been scheduled pursuant [...]

by Doug Kendall, President, Constitutional Accountability Center. This article is cross-posted in Grist Magazine and on Text & History.
Following last Friday’s announcement that Justice John Paul Stevens will retire from the Supreme Court at the end of this term, President Obama hailed the Court’s most senior Justice as “an impartial guardian of [...]

Today, the EPA announced that it has finalized new auto emissions standards for greenhouse gases.  These new regulations are the result of a three-way deal struck in May 2009 among the Obama Administration, the state of California, and the auto industry, pursuant to which the Administration adopted California’s so-called “Pavley” auto emissions standards nationwide.  The [...]

The Washington Post reports today that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has sent a letter to lawmakers, informing them of the timetable by which her agency plans on establishing greenhouse gas regulations.
The letter states that major emitters could face regulations as early as the start of 2011, while mid-size emitters (the example she provides is a [...]

There has been much chatter this week about Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and her ongoing threat to introduce a (supposedly imminent) legislative amendment that would strip the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and power plants under the Clean Air Act.
Since as far back as September, the Senator has been [...]

For good reason, many climate activists view 2009 as a disappointing year, filled with bad news coverage and missed opportunities.  The Senate seems a long way from passing a clean energy jobs bill, and the long-anticipated U.N. summit in Copenhagen has come and gone, producing only an unambitious, non-binding agreement among world leaders.  Moreover, late [...]

As anticipated, industry groups have formally filed a short petition for review of the EPA’s endangerment finding, finalized in December, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The challenge, filed Dec. 23, was brought by four coal companies (Great Northern Project Development, L.P., Rosebud Mining Company, Massey Energy Company, and Alpha [...]

E&E reports yesterday that several Republicans in Congress are attempting to overturn the EPA’s recent endangerment finding for CO2, which has opened the door to EPA regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.  According to E&E (subscription required):
Reps. Joe Barton of Texas and Darrell Issa of California said they and other House Republicans [...]

Predictably, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has announced its intention to sue the EPA in federal court, seeking  to overturn the agency’s recent endangerment finding for CO2 “on the grounds that EPA has ignored major scientific issues, including those raised recently in the Climategate fraud scandal.”
To the best of our knowledge, this will be the [...]