DEP regulations invalidated by SJC

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The Department of Environmental Protection has failed to fulfill its statutory mandate to promulgate regulations establishing a “desired level of declining annual aggregate emission limits for sources or categories of sources that emit greenhouse gas emissions,” the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled.

The DEP claimed that it complied with the requirements of the Global Warming Solutions Act, referencing specific regulatory schemes that the department had established to reduce greenhouse gases, including prescribed limits on sulfur hexafluoride leaks, a regional cap and trade market to manage carbon dioxide emissions known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and a low emission vehicle (LEV) program aimed at reducing automobile emissions.

“[W]e conclude that the unambiguous language of [G.L.c. 21N,] section3(d) requires the department to promulgate regulations that establish volumetric limits on multiple greenhouse gas emissions sources, expressed in carbon dioxide equivalents, and that such limits must decline on an annual basis,” Justice Robert J. Cordy wrote for a unanimous court. “We further conclude that the sulfur hexafluoride, RGGI, and LEV regulations fall short of complying with the requirements of section3(d), because they fail to ensure the type of mass-based reductions in greenhouse gases across the sources or categories of sources regulated under each of the programs, as intended by the Legislature.”

The 39-page decision is Kain, et al. v. Department of Environmental Protection, Lawyers Weekly No. 10-066-16.

Click here to read the full text of the opinion.