Loading...
Foreword: On the Imperative of Adapting to Climate Change
Sunstein, Cass
Sunstein, Cass
Files
Abstract
For climate change and the administrative state, imagine two situations:
(1) Congress has enacted a Climate Change Act (CCA), which gives
specific directions, and specific authorities, to an assortment of
agencies: the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of
Transportation, the Department of Interior, the Department of
Homeland Security, the Department of Energy, and others. In the years
following enactment of the CCA, the relevant agencies must act in
accordance with Congress’s directions. To be sure, they must make
some important discretionary judgments, calling for both scientific and
economic assessments. But those judgments are sharply cabined by
congressional instructions about how to handle the problem of climate
change.
(2) Over a period of decades, Congress has given an assortment of
directions and authorities to an assortment of agencies: the
Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Transportation,
the Department of Interior, the Department of Homeland Security, the
Department of Energy, and others. In general, those directions and
authorities were not given with specific reference to climate change.
Some of the relevant authorities involve air pollution. Others involve
fuel economy. Still others involve energy efficiency. Others involve
preparedness for, and response to, national disasters. Agencies act in
accordance with the directions and authorities that they have been
given. If the President of the United States is focused on climate
change, agencies will respond accordingly, authorized and limited as
they are by law. If the President of the United States is not focused on
climate change, agencies will also respond accordingly, again
authorized and limited as they are by law.