Administration

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• Your professor coming to class this morning.

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Announcements

• Prepare for discussion section
• Reading is linked online.
• Find your room location ahead of time.
• Grading
• 25 pts. Participates in discussion. Clearly
  has read and thought about article.
• 20 pts. Attends but does not participate or has
  not done reading.
• (Obviously, this grading is curved.)

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Announcements

• Homework 1 due Feb. 13
• For the purposes of this class, Act Bill Law
• Committee hearings These are not on Thomas. You
  have to look elsewhere.
• Waitlist All waitees have now been added.
• Syllabus in HTML

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Todays class

• Congress
• Administration
• Courts Well see
• Today Possibly short class
• Fridays class Clean Air Act, part 1

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• One other thing Congress can do
• Spending
• Section 8 - Powers of Congress
• The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect
  Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the
  Debts and provide for the common Defence and
  general Welfare of the United States but all
  Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform
  throughout the United States

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• Madison Spending powers are tied to other
  enumerated powers. For example, Congress can
  only spend for the regulation of Interstate
  Commerce.
• Hamilton Spending is its own enumerated power.
  Congress can spend without much restriction.
• So far, the Hamiltonian view has prevailed.

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Administration

• Administration reads the general language of the
  law (passed by Congress).
• Administration issues rules that fill in the
  details.
• Administrative law
• Who writes these laws?
• Who passes them?
• These rules have the force of law.

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• Exam Q Give an example of a law where Congress
  used very general language to specify what was to
  be done.
• Given an example of a law where Congress used
  very specific language.
• Why did Congress adopt a general/ specific
  approach in your example?

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Administrative Law, cont.

• Usually, there are deadlines in the law for when
  a rule must be issued. Otherwise
• Proposed rules allow for comment period.
• Bushs Executive Order (1/29/2007)

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• Clean Water Act,  1314 (b)
• Effluent limitation guidelines
• For the purpose of adopting or revising
  effluent limitations under this chapter the
  Administrator shall, after consultation with
  appropriate Federal and State agencies and other
  interested persons, publish within one year of
  October 18, 1972, regulations, providing
  guidelines for effluent limitations, and, at
  least annually thereafter, revise, if
  appropriate, such regulations.

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Energy Policy Act of 2005 (repeat of Mondays
slide)

• (2) RENEWABLE FUEL PROGRAM-
• (A) REGULATIONS-
• (i) IN GENERAL- Not later than 1 year after the
  date of enactment of this paragraph, the
  Administrator shall promulgate regulations to
  ensure that gasoline sold or introduced into
  commerce in the United States (except in
  noncontiguous States or territories), on an
  annual average basis, contains the applicable
  volume of renewable fuel determined in accordance
  with subparagraph (B).

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• Federal Register September 22, 2006 (Volume 71,
  Number 184)
• ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
• 40 CFR Part 80 EPA-OAR-2005-0161 FRL-8218-8
  RIN 2060-AN76
• Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives Renewable
  Fuel Standard Program
• AGENCY Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
• ACTION Notice of proposed rulemaking.
• SUMMARY Under the Clean Air Act, as amended by
  Section 1501 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005,
  the Environmental Protection Agency is required
  to promulgate regulations implementing a
  renewable fuel program.

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• DATES Comments
• Comments must be received on or before November
  12, 2006. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act,
  comments on the information collection provisions
  must be received by OMB on or before October 30,
  2006. Hearing A public hearing will be held at
  10 a.m. (Central) on October 13, 2006 at the
  Sheraton Gateway Suites Chicago O'Hare in
  Rosemont, IL.
• To request to speak at a public hearing, send a
  request to the contact in FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
  CONTACT by October 4, 2006.

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• Table of Contents partial
• Background
• The Role of Renewable Fuels in the Transportation
  Sector
• Requirements in the Energy Policy Act
• Default Standard Applicable to 2006
• Development of the Proposal
• II. Overview of the Proposal
• A. Impacts of Increased Reliance on Renewable
  Fuels

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This goes on for 239 pages.

• III. Complying With the Renewable Fuel Standard
• According to the Energy Act, the RFS program
  places obligations on individual parties such
  that the renewable fuel volumes shown in Table
  I.B-1 are actually used as motor vehicle fuel in
  the U.S. each year. To accomplish this, the
  Agency must calculate and publish a standard by
  November 30 of each year which is applicable to
  every obligated party. On the basis of this
  standard each obligated party determines the
  volume of renewable fuel that it must ensure is
  consumed as motor vehicle fuel.
• In addition to setting the standard, we must
  clarify who the obligated parties are and what
  volumes of gasoline are subject to the standard.
  Obligated parties must also know which renewable
  fuels are valid for RFS compliance purposes, and
  how much credit each type of renewable fuel will
  receive.

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Courts

• The courts must be asked to intervene.
• 1. For laws Is the law constitutional?
• Important recent issue Is the Congress
  constitutionally allowed to delegate?
• (What does this mean?)

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Courts

• 2. For rules Does the rule issued follow the
  law?

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• Washington Post, February 2, 2005
• Judge Rescinds Rule On Gray Wolves A federal
  judge ruled that the Bush administration violated
  the Endangered Species Act when it relaxed
  protections on many of the nation's gray wolves.
  The decision by U.S. District Judge Robert E.
  Jones in Portland, Ore., rescinds a rule change
  that allows ranchers to shoot wolves on sight if
  they are attacking livestock

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Massachusetts vs. EPA (2007)

• http//www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/05-1120.ZS.h
  tml

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How the Court interprets rules issued in the
Federal Register

• Congressional intent gets first priority. What
  did Congress say about the issue?
• Administration gets the benefit of the doubt.
• Still, the Courts often find that rules did not
  follow the authorizing laws.

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How the Court interprets rules issued in the
Federal Register

• Many rulings have to do with compliance with the
  laws comment period, timeliness of rules, etc.
• Errors of commission vs. Errors of omission.
• (Which of these did Massachusetts sue for in
  Mass. vs. EPA?)

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Reasons why a law is (or is not) open-ended

• Congress doesnt know enough about the issue to
  set standards. Too technical. Science is
  changing.
• or
• Congress doesnt want to make the hard decisions.
• Hope the agencies will set a tougher standard.
• Hope the agencies will set a weaker standard.