Brookings Mountain West presents “Changing Policy without Changing Law: Addressing Climate Change under the Clean Air Act” a talk by Philip Wallach, Senior Fellow, Governance Studies.

As much of the rest of the developed world has adopted climate change laws, Congress has remained almost entirely inactive.  America’s policies have not remained static, however.  In 2007, litigation (Massachusetts v. EPA) required the EPA to re-interpret the Clean Air Act to also apply to greenhouse gases. This presentation will recount the legal arguments in that landmark case, review the legal and practical challenges emanating from the ruling and follow-up decisions by lower courts, and consider the state of policy today as well as the likelihood that Congress might become involved.  Philip Wallach will then ask what setting such an important policy without passing any new law means for contemporary American policymaking and democracy.