Eighteen AGs Filed Petition for Review of EPA’s GHG Regulation Threshold Rule

JANUARY 19, 2021

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led a coalition of 21 attorneys general and six local governments in challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) surprise push to set an arbitrary sector-by-sector threshold for regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from stationary sources under the Clean Air Act. The policy — finalized without an opportunity for public comment — would exempt a sector from regulation if that sector contributes less than 3% of total U.S. GHG emissions. In practice, the policy would insulate industries that are collectively responsible for nearly three-quarters of the country’s GHG emissions, leaving only the electric generation sector’s GHG emissions subject to regulation.