Wisconsin v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit granted in part and denied in part a petition challenging EPA's update to the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. Environmental groups and Delaware argued that EPA violated the CAA by failing to require upwind states to eliminate their significant contributions in accordance with the de...
Alon Refining Springs, Inc. v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's implementation of its Renewable Fuel Standards Program, which requires transportation fuel sold in the United States to contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels. Some industry groups argued that EPA arbitrarily refused to revise its 2010 point of obligation rule that...
Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy v. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
In an unpublished opinion, a state appellate court upheld the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' rules under which the permit for a copper-nickel-platinum mine was issued. Environmental groups challenged the rules, asserting that they were constitutionally vague and unenforceable. The court ...
Herding Cats: Governing Distributed Innovation [Abstract]
Do-It-Yourself biology, 3D printing, and the sharing economy are equipping ordinary people with new powers to shape their biological, physical, and social environments. This phenomenon of distributed innovation is yielding new goods and services, greater economic productivity, and new opportunities for fulfillment. Distributed innovation also brings new environmental, health, and security risks that demand oversight, yet conventional government regulation may be poorly suited to address these risks.
The Attack on American Cities
Cities often test the existing limits of their regulatory authority in areas like environmental protection, labor and employment, and immigration. The last few years witnessed an explosion of preemptive state legislation attacking, challenging, and overriding municipal ordinances across a wide range of policy areas. But this hostility to city government is not new. In 1915, one professor observed that “the relations of states to metropolitan cities in this country is ‘a history of repeated injuries’ . . .