Focus on State Efforts to Address Climate Change: Editors’ Note

Tom Kerr
Amy Royden

This issue of the Newsletter looks at the various actions states are taking to tackle the issue of climate change. Our first article deals with a subject near and dear to lawyers’ hearts: litigation. Several New England states have filed notice of their intent to sue EPA for its failure to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant and for its failure to review performance standards for fossil-fueled electric generating units under the Clean Air Act. Three of these states have taken the next step and filed suit. The second article describes a more collaborative approach taken by the New England states – cooperating with Eastern Canadian premiers to set ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) and mapping out a strategy to achieve these goals. The next article details the process Rhode Island engaged in to develop a GHG Action Plan, which involved stakeholders from business, industry, citizen groups, environmental organizations and other government agencies.

This is by no means a comprehensive review of states’ actions, but rather a snapshot. For example, other states outside of New England that are active in climate change issues include California and New York. California’s Climate Action Registry began operations in October 2002 and currently accepts voluntary registry of greenhouse (GHG) emissions from a broad spectrum of participants, including utilities, businesses, industry, government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and other entities. See www.climateregistry.org. A previous edition of this newsletter described California’s recently enacted statute directing the California Air Resources Board to “develop and adopt regulations that achieve the maximum feasible and cost-effective reduction of [GHG] emissions from motor vehicles.” New York Gov. George Pataki in his State of State speech in January 2003 directed New York’s Public Service Commission to implement a Renewable Portfolio Standard that will provide that that within the next 10 years, at least 25 percent of the electricity bought in New York will come from renewable energy resources like solar power, wind power or fuel cells. Pataki also said that New York would adopt the carbon dioxide emission standards for motor vehicles developed by California. In April, the governor wrote nine governors of Northeast states urging them to work with New York to develop a regional strategy to address carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants. He set a goal of developing such an approach within two years. These initiatives grew from recommendations by the New York GHG Task Force, which the governor convened in 2001.

For an excellent overview of state action on climate change – including activities not specifically directed at reducing GHG emissions but which have that effect – see Greenhouse & Statehouse: The Evolving State Government Role in Climate Change, a report prepared for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change by University of Michigan Prof. Barry Rabe (available at www.pewclimate.org). It includes nine case studies of states – Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin – that have taken action to mitigate climate change.

Last but not least, the newsletter includes a write-up of the brown bag the Committee held in mid-May reviewing the prospects for federal climate change legislation. Whether regulatory, collaborative and litigious approaches by states increase pressure for federal legislation remains to be seen . . .