Legal Fight Over Greenhouse Gases to Test 'Competing Realities'

Environmental attorney Zach Pilchen was quoted in a Bloomberg Law article on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposal to revoke its landmark endangerment finding for greenhouse gases. This endangerment finding, which was established in 2009, identified a mix of six greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride – as a danger to public health and welfare, a key predicate to regulating them under the Clean Air Act. Legal professionals including Mr. Pilchen predicted litigation would follow if the EPA finalized the proposal. He added that the judicial battleground will "depend on which rationales the EPA adopts" after the public comment process.

"Litigation over statutory interpretation will look vastly different than litigation over the scientific record," Mr. Pilchen said.

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