High Court Climate Ruling Could Complicate Hill Fight On EPA GHG Rules

摘要

The Supreme Court's recent ruling that EPA's Clean Air Act greenhouse gas (GHG) rules displace climate change common law nuisance suits poses a complication for GOP efforts to scrap the agency's GHG authority, sources say, as a legislative repeal of EPA's climate jurisdiction could nullify the displacement arguments and revive nuisance suits. Even with the complications of the high court's 8-0 decision June 20 in American Electric Power (AEP) v. Connecticut, sources suggest that the likely option for critics of EPA's climate rules is to use the agency's pending fiscal year (FY) 2012 spending bill to block the agency from spending any funds to implement its rules. Such an approach would not undo EPA's GHG authority, and would thus likely blunt the threat of revived nuisance claims.