Using Building Codes to Rewrite the Tailoring Rule and Mitigate Climate Change
50 Pages Posted: 23 Dec 2012 Last revised: 27 Mar 2013
Date Written: August 31, 2012
Abstract
In 2008, Mass. v. EPA effectively forced the EPA to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The plain language of the Clean Air Act gave the EPA an impossible mandate of regulating millions of buildings on a case-by-case basis. The EPA, through the Tailoring Rule, decided to regulate fewer sources. This paper shows that the EPA’s approach is legally suspect. Instead, the EPA should regulate more sources using general permits that avoid the impossibility of case-by-case regulation of millions of sources. The EPA can regulate buildings under the Clean Air Act by mandating stricter building codes for regulated buildings through State Implementation Plans (SIPs). Mandating stricter building codes is both an allowable interpretation of the Clean Air Act and a practical solution to the difficult problem of regulating carbon dioxide emissions from millions of buildings. Furthermore, stricter building codes helps both mitigate climate change and solve market failures that reduce energy efficiency.
Keywords: EPA, Tailoring Rule, Clean Air Act, building code, climate change, energy efficiency
JEL Classification: K32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation