Agenda

In a new Joint Center study, Cass Sunstein investigates the constitutionality of the Clean Air Act. He asserts that the Environmental Protection Agency should meet two requirements when issuing national ambient air quality regulations. First, the agency should specify the range of benefits it expects each rule to achieve by evaluating at least two alternative approaches, one more strict and the other more lenient than the favored regulation. Second, the agency should explain why the standard it chose is preferable to the alternatives. If the EPA performs those tasks and does so reasonably, then the courts should uphold the underlying regulations.