Beyond Agency Authority: Regulating Sulfur Hexafluoride Under An Enhanced Title II Framework Of The Clean Air Act

Authors

Matthew Gawley

Abstract

This paper explores the critical need for robust Congressional action to regulate sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential more than 20,000 times greater than carbon dioxide. Recent Supreme Court decisions––in West Virginia v. EPA and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo––to restrict EPA authority and end the Chevron doctrine have curtailed federal environmental agencies’ regulatory authority, shifting the responsibility for addressing major environmental challenges back to Congress. Despite being addressed under Title I of the Clean Air Act (CAA) through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), current SF6 regulations prove grossly inadequate. The utilities industry––the largest SF6 emitter––has resisted voluntary compliance, and Title I’s state-driven frameworks—like NAAQS and SIPs—have not offered effective solutions for this uniquely dangerous pollutant. This paper advances a novel approach inspired by Title II of the 1970 CAA Amendments. Title II’s national standards, pre-market certification requirements, and technology-forcing provisions offer a robust framework better suited to curbing SF6 emissions. By mandating technology-forcing provisions and creating a federal enforcement regime, Congress can compel a lowering of persistent SF6 emissions. Adopting Title II principles into future SF6 regulation could address the inadequacies of Title I and usher in a resilient regulatory regime capable of reducing emissions and withstanding current judicial hostility to the administrative state.

Recommended Citation

Matthew Gawley, Beyond Agency Authority: Regulating Sulfur Hexafluoride Under An Enhanced Title II Framework Of The Clean Air Act, 36 Fordham Envtl. L. Rev. (2025).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/elr/vol36/iss2/3