June/July 2010 / Features
Climate Change Regulation is Up in the Air
In the Fall of 2009, EPA issued a final rule that requires reporting of annual emissions of greenhouse gases. The finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, and thus must be regulated under the Clean Air Act, was made in response to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency. Now Congress is contemplating curbing EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. These efforts, if successful, could put an end to EPA’s greenhouse gas Rule.
Cap-and-trade legislation appears to be dead. Senators Kerry (D-MA), Graham (R-SC). and Lieberman (I-CT) are still attempting a tri-partisan and less controversial “energy only” approach. It is stripped of most caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile states and regions have adopted their own regulatory regimes. If this trend continues, a cumbersome patchwork of regulations could emerge.
In February of this year the SEC issued guidance on climate-change related disclosures to investors. The guidance confirms disclosure of material obligations being made under existing SEC rules, such as legal proceedings and discussion of financial condition and operations. This guidance too has come under Congressional attack.
Several significant lawsuits that either call anthropogenic climate change into question or take it as a given have reached the federal circuit court level.
