Andrew Wheeler will join a panel of other industry experts to discuss the cases of Boiler MACT, Utility MACT and CSPAR at the 40th National Spring Conference on the Environment, titled, "Reframing the Conversation: Examining the Tension Between Environmental Regulation, Job Growth and the Economy."
When the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 were originally enacted, no one thought the statutes would be applied to concerns about greenhouse gas emissions. The delicate balance was struck with the Clean Air Act—federal standards and state implementation plans. Unlike fixed state lines, however, air pollution moves freely, and down‐wind states have struggled ever since within the federal framework to avoid economic and environmental impacts of upstate emitting facilities. States with abundant local energy resources, such as coal, and local electric utilities seek to use low‐cost available resources to stimulate jobs with cheap energy production while other states have fought what they claim are inappropriate upwind sources of air pollution. The Obama Administration USEPA's response has included accepting the U.S. Supreme Court's rule in Mass. v. EPA that the Clean Air Act allows regulation of greenhouse gases as pollutants, and adopting controversial regulations that include rules targeting boilers and utilities and the cross‐state air pollution rule. Critics argue that these rules are job‐killing drags on the economy and that the nation's coal‐fired generating facilities and the coal industry are doomed. How should regulators balance the policy goals of job growth and economic concerns with environmental regulation?
Other topics covered at the conference will include:
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