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Potts on "the Dirty Climate Debate"

By Lawrence Solum

Brian H. Potts has posted The Dirty Climate Debate (Yale Law Journal Online, Vol. 120, No. 1, 2010) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Climate change has become the hottest environmental debate in decades. It could also go down as the dirtiest ? and not just politically. As legislators, regulators, pundits, and stakeholders debate the question of whether or not to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, the regulatory uncertainty that they have created is leading to dirtier air quality in this country, which in turn is harming our health. According to calculations based on Bush-era EPA data, the climate debate is likely already responsible for hundreds (if not thousands) of premature deaths and billions of dollars in additional health care costs ? all of which are unrelated to rising temperatures.

The regulatory uncertainty surrounding the climate debate, coupled with a recent downturn in emissions markets, is slowing the installation of pollution controls on coal-fired power plants, which are some of the largest emitters in this country. This is leading to dirtier air in our cities and towns and particularly in some of this nation?s most protected areas like the Great Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah, and Everglades National Parks ? just to name a few. Ironically, the uncertainty has also led electric utilities and environmental groups to flip positions on pollution controls. Prominent environmental groups like the Sierra Club are now opposing efforts by utilities to install environmental controls on their power plants, the same controls that these groups have fought voraciously to attain for over thirty years and that many utilities have avoided. These environmentalists are choosing to sacrifice known short-term health and environmental benefits for their long-term climate policy goals. It is hard to believe, but it is true. This Essay argues that Congress must quickly put a stop to this nonsense.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on May 07, 2010 (boomark / email).