California Can Regulate Carbon Emissions, Maybe
Intrigued? Check out my FindLaw column on the topic here. Feeling cheated by the absence of a full blog post from me today? Sorry about that. At least the column is a bit longer than usual. And you can read Jamie's post, just below. I've got exams to grade.
Posted by Mike Dorf
Posted by Mike Dorf
posted by Michael C. Dorf @ 2:32 PM
2 Comments:
At 9:32 AM,
egarber said…
After reading your Findlaw piece, I have a few random questions / comments:
1. Does the California effort actually specify a mileage target -- or is it simply a matter of an emissions target inevitably leading to higher fuel efficiency standards?
2. If the answer to (1) is that no mileage standard is specified, what would happen in court if say, the EPA approved a California rule that stated something like this?
"In order to reduce carbon emissions by 25% over 10 years, all cars sold in CA must achieve at least 30 miles per gallon by 2010."
Would that be enough to say the DOT's authority is too compromised?
3. As an aside, are there any current SCOTUS justices who wish to do away with this kind of delegated agency authority altogether? At first thought, it would seem the textualism / originalism / strict constructionism of at least Scalia and Thomas could lead to the conclusion that all such rules should be specified in statute, not via quasi fourth branches of government. (That's not my opinion; I'm just curious).
At 10:45 AM,
Michael C. Dorf said…
CA provides conversion tables for compliance in mpg using current technology but the formal mandate is only in emissions.
Maybe Justice Thomas would want to eliminate delegation, but Justice Scalia has made his peace with it, and in fact is a strong proponent of judicial deference to agency decisionmaking (at least during Republican Administrations!)
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