Spring 2010: Air Today, Gone Tomorrow

In This Issue

The Mystery of the Disappearing Air Regulations

Stephen Gidiere, Thomas Casey, and David Mitchell

The theme of this issue of Natural Resources & Environment—Air Today, Gone Tomorrow—is particularly apropos to the focus of this article: the Obama administration’s efforts to pull back Clean Air Act (CAA) permitting and final rule-making decisions made during the preceding Bush administration...

Legal Uncertainties and the Future of U.S. Emissions Trading Programs

Sonja L. Rodman

Emissions rights trading programs, once the exclusive domain of economists and regulators, are in the public eye like never before. Bumper stickers take positions on capand trade, and mainstream news reports discuss offsets and allowances...

Fixing CAIR: EPA Embarks on a New Rulemaking for Interstate Pollution

Norman W. Fichthorn and E. Carter Chandler Clements

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted the Clean Air Interstate Rule, or CAIR, in 2005 as an innovative rule under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act) with a market-based approach to reducing emissions of air pollutants...

Ten Years of New Source Review Enforcement Litigation

Margaret Claiborne Campbell and Angela Jean Levin

On November 3, 1999, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Carol Browner and Attorney General Janet Reno jointly announced what they called an “unprecedented action.” ...

Go West Young Man? Air Quality Developments Affecting Western Oil and Gas Exploration and Production

John R. Jacus and Denee A. DiLuigi

Western U.S. oil and gas (O&G) exploration and production continue to be the subject of intense regional and national interest, not only as they relate to economic and energy security benefits, but also due to increasing air-related environmental concerns. Chief among such concerns is the emission of criteria and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs)....

Ubiquitous Industrial and Commercial Boilers and Their Regulation under the Clean Air Act

Robert J. Lambrechts

Though generally unobserved, the boiler is the workhorse of American industry and commercial activity. Industrial and commercial boilers represent about 40 percent of all energy use in the industrial and commercial sectors...

Europe Fights Particle Pollution— Insight into Implementation of EU Law

Andrej Kobe and Katerina Varenne

Particulate matter is currently the most important air pollutant in the European Union (EU). While it is expected that successfully addressing ground-level ozone will require even more time and international effort, it is the particles that by far dominate effects on public health, being responsible for more than 350,000 premature deaths per year in the twenty-seven States of the EU...

State Common Law of Public Nuisance in the Modern Administrative State

F. William Brownell

In recent years, the ancient writ of “public nuisance” has experienced a renaissance in the area of environmental law. Plaintiffs’ attorneys, public-interest groups, and state attorneys general have brought public nuisance actions seeking injunctive relief or damages for air pollution and climate change, among other environmental concerns...

The Clean Air Act: An Indispensable Tool to Combat Global Warming

Vera P. Pardee and Kassie R. Siegel

The alarming effects of global warming are no longer looming in some distant future—they are upon us now. Arctic sea ice and glaciers are retreating at an accelerating pace; the oceans are acidifying and rising; hurricanes, droughts, and heat waves are increasing or becoming more severe; water and food resources are adversely affected; and numerous species are nearing extinction.

Clean Air Act Permitting Standards Impose Environmental Justice Obstacles

Annise K. Maguire

Utilizing a recent permit application from Michigan as an example, this article suggests changes to the Clean Air Act (CAA) that will provide the environmental justice movement with an opportunity to achieve its goals...

Departments

Vantage Point

Gale Lea Rubrecht

The idea for this issue of NR&E took root after what some analogized to a train wreck in the sky, the D.C. Circuit's decision vacating the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). The theme of this issue, called "Air Today, Gone Tomorrow" is air and the dramatic changes we have witnessed in both law and policy under the Obama administration...

Interview: Cynthia Giles

Milo Mason

In her thirty-year career, Giles has prosecuted environmental laws as an Assistant United States Attorney, led the Bureau of Resource Protection in Massachusetts, and served as Director of Enforcement Coordination for EPA Region 3 in Philadelphia...

Literary Resources

Reviewed by JoAnne L. Dunec

Capturing the Power of Electric Restructuring; FERC: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Second Edition; Climate Change Law: Mitigation and Adaptation; and Climate Change and European Emissions Trading: Lessons for Theory and Practice.

The Back Page

Editorial Board

A few late-breaking CAA news items worth noting...

Insights

GHG Regulation Is Here to Stay

Patrick J. Paul

The first year of President Barack Obama's tenure has been marked by a bevy of activity in the environmental arena across all three branches of government. The year closed with yet another directive from the administration...

Local Regulation of Mineral Extraction in Colorado

Jean Feriancek

Summit County, a statutory Colorado county that bridges the continental divide of the Rocky Mountains, originally was settled by gold miners but now is the location of four major ski areas and derives much of its revenue from tourism.

Still Defining "Discharge of a Pollutant" after Thirty Years

James H. Andreasen

Very basic concepts defining Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction continue to attract regulatory action and litigation more than thirty years after initial enactment as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972.

Nevada-Utah Interstate Groundwater Negotiations

John R. Zimmerman

Nevada and Utah recently released a draft interstate groundwater management agreement concerning the Snake Valley groundwater basin...

Cleaning Up Clean Rivers: Dollars Well Spent?

Jeffrey C. Miller

The Portland Harbor Superfund Site Study Area is a ten-mile stretch of the Willamette River located just downstream from Portland, Oregon. According to the recently released draft remedial investigation report, PCBs account for most of the estimated human health and ecological risks at the site...

Connecticut v. AEP: The New Normal?

Joy C. Fuhr

Are global warming claims really simple tort claims, no more complex than discharges of raw sewage into Lake Michigan? That's the conclusion drawn by the Second Circuit in Connecticut v. American Electric Power Co.

American Bar Association TM American Bar Association

Spring 2010: Air Today, Gone Tomorrow

The Mystery of the Disappearing Air Regulations

In This Issue

The Mystery of the Disappearing Air Regulations

Legal Uncertainties and the Future of U.S. Emissions Trading Programs

Fixing CAIR: EPA Embarks on a New Rulemaking for Interstate Pollution

Ten Years of New Source Review Enforcement Litigation

Go West Young Man? Air Quality Developments Affecting Western Oil and Gas Exploration and Production

Ubiquitous Industrial and Commercial Boilers and Their Regulation under the Clean Air Act

Europe Fights Particle Pollution— Insight into Implementation of EU Law

State Common Law of Public Nuisance in the Modern Administrative State

The Clean Air Act: An Indispensable Tool to Combat Global Warming

Clean Air Act Permitting Standards Impose Environmental Justice Obstacles

Departments

Vantage Point

Interview: Cynthia Giles

Literary Resources

The Back Page

Insights

GHG Regulation Is Here to Stay

Local Regulation of Mineral Extraction in Colorado

Still Defining "Discharge of a Pollutant" after Thirty Years

Nevada-Utah Interstate Groundwater Negotiations

Cleaning Up Clean Rivers: Dollars Well Spent?

Connecticut v. AEP: The New Normal?