Click here to download a complete pdf version of E&E Legal Letters Issue II. Click on headlines for the full article.

EPA’s NSPS is Unconstitutional: Regulatory Comment
by Dr. David Schnare, E&E Legal General Counsel

The Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal), on behalf of its members, comments that EPA’s proposed rule to control greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act’s New Source Performance Standards is unconstitutional as a substantive due process violation of the Fifth Amendment because it constitutes a naked transfer of wealth from one sector of the electric generation industry to other electric generation entities of that industry. Further, the proposed rule is unconstitutional as a due process violation of the Fifth Amendment, in the form of a violation of equal protection, because the rule is intended to increase the cost of electricity to those least able to pay that cost, because EPA knows of this inequality, because EPA knows the targets of that inequality are protected minorities, and because the value of carbon to the society is greater than the cost to the society; and thus, EPA acts with the intent to injure protected minorities.

Texas A&M and the Texas Public Information Act
by Chaim Mandelbaum, FME Law Counsel

A University Professor may have committed a criminal act when he decided to erase all his work-related emails so that no one could obtain them through a Freedom of Information Act request. E&E Legal documented this activity and is engaging with the Texas A&M University to address the issue and prevent future, similar incidents.

Bankrupting Coal for Fun and Profit – The Obama EPA
by Clifford Smith, FME Law Counsel

The “War on Coal” isn’t a figment of anyone’s imagination. It’s a daily reality at the EPA. Candidate Obama’s decision to bankrupt the coal-fired electricity industry is the “real” stance of the Obama Administration, not their more tame statements they have made since. Emails obtained from EPA show the Agency is in the pocket of environmental alarmists and that the two are colluding to destroy low cost electricity.

Legal Roundup

E&E Legal presented its arguments to a supportive Virginia Supreme Court in an effort to obtain emails from the University of Virginia. E&E Legal has brought a similar suit against the University of Arizona and briefs on that case will be filed this Spring. E&E Legal’s challenge to the Colorado Renewable Energy Standard is now before the court and hearings on their motion for summary judgment are expected in late spring. EPA, confronted with a law suit on their failure to timely respond to E&E Legal has entered into settlement discussions and appears ready to do what it should have done in the first place.

E&E Legal Letters is a quarterly publication of the Energy and Environment Legal Institute. The publication is widely disseminated to key stakeholders, such as our members, website inquiries, energy, environment, and legal industry representatives, the media, congressional, legislative, and regulatory contacts, the judiciary, and donors.