Don’t Mess with Houston, Texas: The Clean Air Act and State/Local Preemption

In this Note, Hackney discusses the legal issues surrounding state/local preemption.  He examines this broad area of law by looking at what steps a city may take to ensure that its citizens breath clean air if the city determines that the state is not doing enough to regulate air pollution.

Noting that local government is often the only entity that can effectively solve this type of problem, Hackney addresses the question of how far a city can go in addressing the issue given that state law expressly governs.