How Long Should Obama Wait for Congress to Act on Climate Change?

• Pages: 50-51

Page 50 ❧ THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM Copyright © 2009, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, March/April 2009

THE FORUM

How Long Should Obama Wait for

Congress to Act on Climate Change?

This debate occurs in the context of

the Supreme Court’s decision in

Massachusetts v. EPA, which held

that the Environmental Protection

Agency has the authority under the

Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emis-

sions, a power the Bush administration chose

not to exercise in the two years since.

Meanwhile, pressure has been building

for Congress to pass a climate bill. During

the campaign, Obama adviser Jason Grumet

said the new president might wait 18 months

for Congress to enact new cap-and-trade leg-

islation but would use existing authority if it

didn’t pass a bill by then.

But some would like to see Obama act

much sooner. Recent news accounts portray

Obama’s advisers as split on whether to de-

lay action on climate change because of the

economic crisis. In the mean time, EPA has

been seeking comments on how the CAA

might be used to tackle climate change via

an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

issued last summer.

Should President Obama wait for Con-

gress, or should he act on the Court’s as-

sertion of authority and promulgate a rule

using the existing CAA? If he does use the

act’s regulatory powers, what shape would a

climate change program look like?