EPA Issues First-Ever Rule Regulating GHG Emissions from Light Duty Vehicles, Confirms GHG Stationary Source Permitting Begins January 2011

This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took two major steps in the agency's continued march toward establishing a new regulatory framework to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the Clean Air Act (CAA).

On Monday, March 29, 2010, EPA finalized the agency's formal reconsideration of the Dec. 18, 2008, "Johnson Memo" addressing when GHGs would become "subject to regulation" under the CAA. EPA's reconsideration action was the first formal confirmation of recent informal statements by Administrator Lisa Jackson that EPA is not planning to regulate GHG emissions through the CAA Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V permitting programs until 2011.