The NYU School of Law's Institute for Policy Integrity, a nonprofit think tank advocating better governmental decision-making in environmental law and other areas, filed a petition with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson on July 29 asking her to create a cap-and-trade system limiting greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, nonroad vehicles, and aircraft. The petition argues that the Clean Air Act already authorizes the EPA to take that step.
Michael Livermore '06, IPI's executive director, told Greenwire that the document was a "friendly petition" meant to inspire political action on the issue of climate change in both the EPA and Congress, saying, "We strongly favor legislative action." But without a timely response from those two bodies, he added, legal action could follow.
After years of delay, the EPA formally declared on April 17 that greenhouse gases were pollutants endangering public health, thus opening the door to their potential regulation. While testifying to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry on July 22, Jackson said that the EPA was still reviewing thousands of public comments concerning the agency's proposal to regulate climate change.
Read the IPI's petition to the EPA
Read the Greenwire story about the petition
Posted on July 29, 2009
Dean Richard Revesz, Lawrence King Professor of Law and faculty director of the Institute for Policy Integrity, traveled to Latin America in June to pursue the institute's goals. Executive Director Michael Livermore joined Revesz in Chile and the Dominican Republic, where the two gave presentations at environmental regulation conferences; they also met with President Leonel Fernández of the Dominican Republic (pictured above with Revesz at right). In Argentina, Revesz discussed Argentine NGOs with Ricardo Luis Lorenzetti, chief justice of that country's Supreme Court.