Academic

O'Rourke on Amending the Clean Air Act

By Lawrence Solum

Kevin O'Rourke (Vermont Law School) has posted The Long Road to Clean Air: An Argument for Greater Efficiency through Amendments to the Clean Air Act on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

In passing broad and sweeping legislation to regulate industry and protect the environment, Congress has taken precautionary measures to ensure that its enactments would not unduly burden existing industry or potentially harm economic growth. Crafted by Congress along with other broad, comprehensive, environmental bills in the 1970?s, the foundation of the current Clean Air Act (CAA) is a perfect example of such legislation and should be seen as a historic bi-partisan legislative success.

However, throughout the CAA?s evolution there have been several Congressional Amendments and EPA rulemakings that have caused inefficient results; both economically and for the health of the populations living near the polluting sources. As the Act has grown in scope with subsequent Amendments, it has also grown in inefficiency, as new programs have been layered over each other in an attempt to correct fundamental structural flaws. This paper will examine these key decisions and argue for greater equity and efficiency in future air pollution reduction by even handedly applying technology-based regulation at a minimum to all electricity generating stationary sources. This paper will also demonstrate that technology-based regulation is pragmatically the most efficient, equitable way to remedy past regulatory inequities, as well as alleviate current problems that have been caused by a history of over-accommodation for existing industry that has occurred to the detriment of economic efficiency and public health.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on December 31, 2010 (boomark / email).