Professor Frank Comments on Supreme Court Greenhouse Emissions Case

Professor of Environmental Practice Richard Frank commented for the Inside E.P.A. Weekly Report on the U.S. Supreme Court's recent oral arguments in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, a case concerning the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

During the oral arguments, Justice Anthony Kennedy strongly questioned Solicitor General Donald Verrilli on the precedent for EPA's discretion to change statutory permit trigger thresholds. Frank said that Kennedy's search for a precedent "suggests strongly to me that Kennedy is skeptical at best of the government's position," calling it "the most dramatic point in the whole 100-minute argument." Frank also said the justices are "struggling for a narrow decision."

Frank, a 1974 graduate of King Hall, is a leader in the field of environmental law and the founding Director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law