Editor's Note: the post that follows was written by CRC's Chief Counsel, Tim Dowling.
We don't always find ourselves in agreement Professor Jonathan Adler, a self-described libertarian who teaches law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and serves as the Director of the school's Center for Business Law & Regulation. In fact, Jonathan helped draft an amicus brief opposing our position in a case near and dear to our hearts, Mass. v. EPA. But in a recent essay on Mass. v. EPA in the Northwestern University Law Review, he makes several observations with which we agree.
First, Jonathan observes that the ruling "is easily the Supreme Court’s most important environmental law decision in well over a decade." He also stresses that “the Massachusetts majority did everything it could, given the posture of the case, to ensure federal regulation of greenhouse gases from motor vehicles and other emission sources,” and that “there should be little doubt that the Court’s judgment in the case gives the Agency little option but to regulate, and not just emissions from new motor vehicles.” Jonathan adds that the ruling will lead to greenhouse gas emission limits on industrial facilities as well.
Although we strongly disagree with several points in Jonathan's essay (most particularly in his discussion of standing), it is encouraging to see that people on both sides of the case recognize the ruling's importance both legally and practically.
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