THE CLEAN AIR ACT

The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air pollutants from numerous sources in order to protect public health and welfare. In 1999, the International Center for Technology Assessment petitioned to regulate greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to section 202 of the Clean Air Act. When the Bush administration denied the petition in 2003, declaring that CO₂ isn’t an “air pollutant” within the broad definition of the Clean Air Act, the Center joined a large coalition of conservation groups, states, and cities in challenging the denial. In April 2007 the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency that CO₂ is in fact an “air pollutant” — and accordingly, the Environmental Protection Agency must move forward with its regulatory process. The Center continued to press for rapid regulation under section 202 in the face of continued stubbornness from the Bush administration, and petitioned for regulation of emissions from ships pursuant to section 213 and from airplanes under section 231.

But the Supreme Court’s ruling affects more than just the need for regulation of emissions from transportation. One of the Clean Air Act’s greatest strengths is its breadth and network of complementary regulatory mechanisms to get at almost all major sources of greenhouse emissions in the country, including the largest sources of all — coal-fired power plants. Already, the Center has helped convince the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental appeals board to overturn the agency’s issuance of a permit for the Bonanza coal-fired power plant in Utah for failing to address the plant’s greenhouse emissions. We’ll continue to press for full implementation of all provisions of the Clean Air Act.