Legal Analysis – Page 19 – Environmental and Energy Law Program

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EPA Mission Tracker

Comments by Public Health Experts on the Proposed Rule

As part of the public comment process, a group of 97 medical and public health experts affiliated with Harvard University submitted a detailed comment outlining the proposal’s misunderstanding of how science works. These signatories ranged from the leading epidemiologists who conducted some of the studies under attack to department chiefs at world-class hospitals who rely on advances in science to treat patients on a daily basis.

October 22, 2018

Power Sector
Regulatory Rollbacks

Legal Analysis of the Proposals to Repeal and Replace the Clean Power Plan

Memorandum on the proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan and the proposed Affordable Clean Energy Rule.

October 11, 2018

Clean Air
Power Sector
Regulatory Rollbacks

Mercury and Air Toxics Standards – EPA Review

The stakes and and MATS background.

September 28, 2018

Clean Cars
Regulatory Rollbacks

CAFE Standards and the California Preemption Plan

In a nutshell, this is the agencies’ proposed preemption argument: The Energy Policy and Conservation Act has a broad, clear preemption provision which preempts state laws or regulations “related to fuel economy standards or average fuel economy standards” and California’s Advanced Clean Cars program regulations are “related to fuel economy standards” and are thus preempted.

August 24, 2018

Administrative Law

Errors and Inconsistencies in GAO’s Reports on the Congressional Review Act

New report argues GAO should reexamine and amend its March 2018 report and testimony, and should reexamine all of its major rule reports and, where necessary, amend them.

July 11, 2018

Clean Cars
Regulatory Rollbacks

California, CAFE Standards, and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act

Can California’s Clean Air Act waiver to implement its Advanced Clean Cars Program be preempted by NHTSA Fuel Economy Standards under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act? Here we summarize the state of current law.

June 19, 2018

EPA Mission Tracker

Legal Shortcomings in EPA’s So-Called “Secret Science” Proposed Rule

On April 24, 2018, Administrator Pruitt followed through on his promise and signed a proposal to change how the EPA considers science. For more background how we got here, and why the stakes for public health are so high, see our previous post on this topic.

May 1, 2018

EPA Mission Tracker

EPA is Planning to Limit the Science It Considers

The EPA has historically relied on the best available peer-reviewed science in carrying out its mission. Federal law and good governance require that the EPA consider all available information in its decision-making. Yet, in a recent interview Administrator Pruitt Administrator Pruitt said that he would soon announce a policy that would exclude science – including peer-reviewed science that has served as the foundation of EPA’s critical rulemaking – from being considered by the EPA. Under this policy, the EPA would only be allowed to consider the results of scientific studies if the underlying data are made public in a way that would allow an independent researcher to reproduce the results.

April 4, 2018

EPA Mission Tracker

EPA’s Talking Points Cast Doubt on Climate Change Science

In spite of overwhelming consensus in the scientific community that human-caused climate change is a serious threat that requires immediate action, the EPA under the Trump administration repeatedly casts doubt on climate science. This is in keeping with a decades-long effort by some in the fossil fuel industry to discredit climate science as a means of averting government action. For months at the beginning of the administration, the EPA perpetrated a form of passive disinformation on climate by hiding information about climate science that it used to make public on its website, while leaving increasingly out-of-date information for visitors to search in archived web pages. In 2018, then-Administrator Pruitt escalated his own active disinformation campaign.

April 4, 2018