Environmental Protection And The State Of Massachusetts

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 on April 2, 2007 in Massachusetts v. EPA against the Bush Administration, new regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) in the State of Massachusetts preempted existing U.S. Enivronmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Air Act legislation.

In 2009, the EPA laid forth new federal rules to emissions controls in response to the ruling of November 14, 2007, in the 9th District Court of Appeals in a 10 state agreement with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in the East: ordering the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to develop tougher fuel efficiency standards. Since then, industrial opposition of cap-and-trade market trading of carbon offsets as core mechanism to GHG reductions has decreased.

Better environmental legislation in Massachusetts is result of federal approval of more extensive mandatory emission reductions programs in the transport sector. The legislation poses that 30 million tonnes of carbon equivalent will be reduced to meet 2020 targets of 10 emissions reductions.

Massachusetts and the RGGI agreement follows the 2007 supported by the State of California: the first State to attain additional compliance beyond federal regulation in GHG reduction standards with ratification of AB32: the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.