New Wiley Rein Publication Addresses President Obama’s Climate Change Agenda

On the heels of the election, Wiley Rein’s Climate Change Team has prepared an analysis of “Climate Change Regulation and Legislation in the Obama Administration.” ()  

The new analysis includes a series of articles addressing important facets of this high priority issue for the new Administration.  Among them are how the Clean Air Act may be used to substitute for or promote legislative activity, the impact of U.S. climate change regulation on foreign trade, the role of energy efficiency standards in the climate change debate, and the use of the Endangered Species Act as a backdoor to climate change regulation.  The report also includes an analysis of the prospects for legislative action.

“In recent years,” said David B. Weinberg, Chair of the firm’s Environment & Safety Practice, “the business and industrial communities have viewed climate change issues through the prism of competing legislative proposals.  Relatively little attention has been focused on the impact climate change policy is going to have in regulatory arenas.  This will need to change. The Obama Administration can be expected to take a far more aggressive role on climate change regulation than has the Bush Administration.”

Alan H. Price, a co-leader of the Climate Change Team and Chair of the firm’s International Trade Practice, added, “In these difficult times, the economic implications of climate change legislation and regulation are particularly important.  Many of the proposals currently under consideration could have devastating impacts on U.S. manufacturers, especially those subject to foreign competition.  One of the new Administration’s challenges will be recognize and address these fundamental concerns.”

The lawyers, counsel, consultants and analysts of Wiley Rein’s Climate Change Team bring together a unique, unmatched breadth of expertise in addressing the challenges of this new environment.  They have long represented corporate and trade association clients subject to the limitations of the Montreal Protocol’s ozone protection provisions; in Clean Air Act, energy efficiency, and related regulatory matters before the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation; in Federal and State appellate and trial court challenges to agency actions and regulations; in international trade matters; and before the Congress and Executive Branch.