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“The announcement of the proposed regulation—which is intended to cut carbon pollution from power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030—represented Mr. Obama’s boldest step in using his executive authority to halt the warming of the planet, an issue he vowed to address during his first presidential campaign six years ago,” reported The New York Times.

“The controversial 645-page plan, expected to trigger legal challenges, sets different reduction targets for each state and gives them flexibility in how to achieve them,” reported USA Today.

Regulation of carbon emissions for existing power plants under the Clean Air Act § 111 is one of the issues included in Vermont Law School’s Top 10 Environmental Watch List for 2014, released in December 2013, which focuses on climate change as the defining challenge of our time.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) constituted 84 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2011. The electric power industry accounted for 33 percent of these emissions, with coal plants leading the way as the worst source of this pollution. VLS environmental experts available for immediate comment on the EPA plan are:

  • Kevin Jones, deputy director, senior fellow for energy technology and policy, Institute for Energy and the Environment, 802-831-1054,kbjones@vermontlaw.edu
  • Michael Dworkin, director of the Institute for Energy and the Environment, 802-831-1319 (office), mdworkin@vermontlaw.edu
  • Patrick Parenteau, senior counsel, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, 802-299-7029 (cell), pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu

In addition, Bill Pedersen, one of the nation’s leading Clean Air Act lawyers, will speak on the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and the Clean Air Act at 10:30 a.m. Friday, June 6, in Oakes Hall Room 110 at Vermont Law School. Pedersen has worked on the Clean Air Act since the 1970s, and in the 1980s served as the EPA associate general counsel for air, the government’s leading clean air lawyer. Congress has twice written suggestions in his law review articles into the Clean Air Act. Friday’s lecture is open to the public. For more information, emailmdworkin@vermontlaw.edu or call 802-831-1319.