Editors' Summary

In the decades-long absence of federal action, local governments--along with the states--have positioned themselves at the forefront of climate change and sustainability planning. These efforts, however, confront preemption problems imposed by federal "ceilings," or uniform national standards, under both existing environmental law and pending climate change legislation. In order to preserve the local autonomy values that underlie local action, and to capture the benefits of regulatory experimentation that result from it, federal climate change law should grant an agency, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the discretion to approve local climate action plans that include measures that surpass federal ceilings.