Environmental law threats from upcoming Supreme Court hearing

Media, law & politics

Last week the Supreme Court agreed to hear a number of cases that challenged the environmental protection agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases. The decision of the judges in this pending case, West Virginia v EPA, would have a huge impact on environmental laws and regulations, especially as world leaders discuss how to slow global climate change at the G20 summit.

David Driesen

David Driesen, a law professor at Syracuse University who specializes in environmental law, responded to the news of the Supreme Court hearing as follows:

“It is unheard of for a court to review an abandoned rule. The Supreme Court has given up its role of “calling balls and strikes” to ask about the pitcher that addresses abstract issues appealing to conservative judicial ideology. And the timing of the decision on the eve of a climate change meeting in Glasgow, at which America’s credibility depends in part on the government having sufficient regulatory powers to sensibly tackle the climate crisis, seems very suspect. “

Driesen is a university professor at the University of Law with a focus on constitutional law, environmental law, law and economics. He has written four books: The Specter of Dictatorship: Judicial Enabling of Presidential Power (Stanford University Press) The Economic Dynamics of Law (Cambridge University Press), the textbook Environmental Law: A Conceptual and Pragmatic Approach (Aspen Kluwer with Robert Adler and Kirsten Engel) and The Economic Dynamics of Environmental Law (MIT Press), which received the Lynton Keith Caldwell Award from the American Political Science Association. He has also published two edited volumes, Beyond Environmental Law: Policy Proposals for a Better Future (Cambridge University Press with Alyson Flournoy) and Economic Thought and US Climate Change Policy (MIT Press).

Please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, Director of Media Relations at Syracuse University at [email protected] or 412-496-0551 to schedule an interview with Driesen for upcoming coverage of this case.

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