{ "id": "R41103", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R41103", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 440991, "date": "2015-05-04", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T19:07:33.653150", "title": "Federal Agency Actions Following the Supreme Court\u2019s Climate Change Decision in Massachusetts v. EPA: A Chronology", "summary": "In 2007, the Supreme Court rendered one of its most important environmental decisions. In Massachusetts v. EPA, the Court held 5-4 that greenhouse gases (GHGs), widely viewed as contributing to climate change, constitute \u201cair pollutants\u201d as that phrase is used in the Clean Air Act (CAA). As a result, said the Court, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had improperly denied a petition seeking CAA regulation of GHG emissions from new motor vehicles by citing, among other reasons, the agency\u2019s lack of authority over such emissions.\nThis report offers a chronology of major federal agency actions, mainly by EPA, that involve GHGs or climate change and that occurred after Massachusetts v. EPA. Most of the listed actions trace directly or indirectly back to the decision. Examples include EPA\u2019s \u201cendangerment finding\u201d for GHG emissions from new motor vehicles; the resulting EPA standards (issued on multiple occasions) for GHG emissions from new motor vehicles; EPA\u2019s proposal of performance standards (again on separate occasions) for CO2 emissions from new, and modified or reconstructed, fossil fuel-fired power plants; and EPA\u2019s proposal of emission guidelines for CO2 emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired power plants. Several listed EPA actions, taken on the agency\u2019s view that regulation of GHG emissions from new motor vehicles triggers new source review of GHG stationary sources, are now either void or will have to be limited slightly in scope, owing to the 2014 decision of the Supreme Court in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA.\nA few agency actions were included in the report solely because of their relevance to climate change and their post-Massachusetts occurrence\u2014that is, they were not legally compelled by Massachusetts v. EPA or EPA actions tracing back to that decision. Examples include EPA\u2019s responses to California\u2019s request for a waiver of CAA preemption allowing that state to set its own limits for GHG emissions from new motor vehicles; OMB\u2019s \u201csocial cost of carbon\u201d dollar amount to be used in agency cost-benefit analyses; the Council on Environmental Quality\u2019s draft guidance on how climate change is to be considered in environmental impact statements; and EPA\u2019s monitoring rule for GHG emissions.\nMore analytical treatment of the government actions in this report may be found in other CRS reports listed in footnote 16 herein.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R41103", "sha1": "a32f3ae3bd15c589f6e718890e9320319df32c1b", "filename": "files/20150504_R41103_a32f3ae3bd15c589f6e718890e9320319df32c1b.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R41103", "sha1": "d3b474b07ceb1e5a484ebfc400f25f9130df9e5e", "filename": "files/20150504_R41103_d3b474b07ceb1e5a484ebfc400f25f9130df9e5e.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 258, "name": "Clean Air Act and Air Quality" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 3878, "name": "Climate Change Science, Technology, and Policy" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4425, "name": "Sustainability Law and Policy" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc806411/", "id": "R41103_2014Jan09", "date": "2014-01-09", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Federal Agency Actions Following the Supreme Court\u2019s Climate Change Decision in Massachusetts v. EPA: A Chronology", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20140109_R41103_2461a84a32d5e86fc0abdd33b5b078b2be51d48c.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20140109_R41103_2461a84a32d5e86fc0abdd33b5b078b2be51d48c.html" } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc463370/", "id": "R41103_2013Aug29", "date": "2013-08-29", "retrieved": "2014-12-05T09:57:41", "title": "Federal Agency Actions Following the Supreme Court's Climate Change Decision in Massachusetts v. EPA: A Chronology", "summary": "This report presents a chronology of major federal agency actions related to environmental concerns following the decision of Massachusetts v. EPA; it particularly looks at actions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court held that greenhouse gases (GHGs), widely viewed as contributing to climate change, constitute \"air pollutants\" as that phrase is used in the Clean Air Act (CAA).", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20130829_R41103_43358caddac0d6902555f20b27a59c256770de51.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20130829_R41103_43358caddac0d6902555f20b27a59c256770de51.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Air pollution", "name": "Air pollution" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Greenhouse gases", "name": "Greenhouse gases" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Courts", "name": "Courts" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Supreme Court", "name": "Supreme Court" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc813475/", "id": "R41103_2012Jul06", "date": "2012-07-06", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Federal Agency Actions Following the Supreme Court\u2019s Climate Change Decision in Massachusetts v. EPA: A Chronology", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20120706_R41103_477227d51d0685eee83ef5294665514379a1feb3.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20120706_R41103_477227d51d0685eee83ef5294665514379a1feb3.html" } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc85381/", "id": "R41103_2012May01", "date": "2012-05-01", "retrieved": "2012-06-06T14:34:05", "title": "Federal Agency Actions Following the Supreme Court's Climate Change Decision in Massachusetts v. EPA: A Chronology", "summary": "This report offers a chronology of major federal agency actions, mainly by EPA, that involve\r\nGHGs or climate change and that occurred in the wake of Massachusetts v. EPA, a ruling that greenhouse gases are \"air pollutants\" via the Clean Air Act. As such, they are not under the EPA's jurisdiction.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20120501_R41103_0327324d12315a74a4c4453eff6b74a286974fe5.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20120501_R41103_0327324d12315a74a4c4453eff6b74a286974fe5.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Environmental protection", "name": "Environmental protection" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Environmental law and legislation", "name": "Environmental law and legislation" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Environmental policy", "name": "Environmental policy" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc99015/", "id": "R41103_2011Apr06", "date": "2011-04-06", "retrieved": "2012-08-31T21:48:36", "title": "Federal Agency Actions Following the Supreme Court\u2019s Climate Change Decision: A Chronology", "summary": "This report presents a chronology of major federal agency actions related to environmental concerns following the decision of Massachusetts v. EPA; it particularly looks at actions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court held that greenhouse gases (GHGs), widely viewed as contributing to climate change, constitute \u201cair pollutants\u201d as that phrase is used in the Clean Air Act (CAA).", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20110406_R41103_dcb7c1afcdcb05fa1c40981cb61a9e05ff9ebd88.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20110406_R41103_dcb7c1afcdcb05fa1c40981cb61a9e05ff9ebd88.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Air pollution", "name": "Air pollution" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Greenhouse gases", "name": "Greenhouse gases" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Law", "name": "Law" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc103082/", "id": "R41103_2011Feb02", "date": "2011-02-02", "retrieved": "2012-09-19T20:16:14", "title": "Federal Agency Actions Following the Supreme Court's Climate Change Decision: A Chronology", "summary": "This report presents a chronology of major federal agency actions, mainly by the Environmental Protection Agencey (EPA), in the wake of Massachusetts v. EPA. In this case, the Court held that greenhouse gases (GHGs), widely viewed as contributing to climate change, constitute \u201cair pollutants\u201d as that phrase is used in the Clean Air Act (CAA). As a result, said the Court, the U.S. EPA had improperly denied a petition seeking CAA regulation of GHGs from new motor vehicles by saying the agency lacked authority over such emissions.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20110202_R41103_a08ba18ea91fa01985adbb2e0cfc780127a7daf6.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20110202_R41103_a08ba18ea91fa01985adbb2e0cfc780127a7daf6.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Greenhouse gases", "name": "Greenhouse gases" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Air pollution", "name": "Air pollution" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Air pollution control", "name": "Air pollution control" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc491528/", "id": "R41103_2010Dec23", "date": "2010-12-23", "retrieved": "2015-01-27T19:40:46", "title": "Federal Agency Actions Following the Supreme Court's Climate Change Decision: A Chronology", "summary": "On April 2, 2007, the Supreme Court rendered one of its most important environmental decisions of all time. In Massachusetts v. EPA, the Court held that greenhouse gases (GHGs), widely viewed as contributing to climate change, constitute \"air pollutants\" as that phrase is used in the Clean Air Act (CAA). As a result, said the Court, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had improperly denied a petition seeking CAA regulation of GHGs from new motor vehicles by saying the agency lacked authority over such emissions. This report presents a chronology of major federal agency actions, mainly by EPA, in the wake of Massachusetts v. EPA.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20101223_R41103_a97bd81c9086a5b5edf05a033c41632b036c51e2.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20101223_R41103_a97bd81c9086a5b5edf05a033c41632b036c51e2.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Greenhouse gases", "name": "Greenhouse gases" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Air pollution", "name": "Air pollution" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Air pollution control", "name": "Air pollution control" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc490869/", "id": "R41103_2010Dec03", "date": "2010-12-03", "retrieved": "2015-01-27T19:40:46", "title": "Federal Agency Actions Following the Supreme Court's Climate Change Decision: A Chronology", "summary": "This report presents a chronology of major federal agency actions taken in the wake of Massachusetts v. EPA. In Massachusetts v. EPA, the Court held that greenhouse gases (GHGs), widely viewed as contributing to climate change, constitute \"air pollutants\" as that phrase is used in the Clean Air Act (CAA). As a result, said the Court, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had improperly denied a petition seeking CAA regulation of GHGs from new motor vehicles by saying the agency lacked authority over such emissions.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20101203_R41103_59338ad0385bc5b689e854462ddba5397224d5e1.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20101203_R41103_59338ad0385bc5b689e854462ddba5397224d5e1.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Air pollution", "name": "Air pollution" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Greenhouse gases", "name": "Greenhouse gases" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Law", "name": "Law" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Energy Policy", "Environmental Policy" ] }