On June 2, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announces a draft of regulations under the Clean Air Act that set the stage for the U.S. to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from electric power plants.

Vivian Thomson, an associate professor of environmental sciences and politics at the University of Virginia and author of a new book, “Sophisticated Interdependence in Climate Policy: Federalism in the United States, Brazil, and Germany,” joins Les Sinclair to talk about the effect of the EPA’s decisions on us.

Thomson was a member and vice chair of the State Air Pollution Control Board in Virginia between 2002 and 2010, an appointee of Virginia Govs. Mark Warner and Timothy Kaine, and also has been senior air pollution policy analyst at the EPA.

Thomson’s book offers a framework for climate change policy in the U.S., acknowledging the crucial role of coherent state-federal regulations in a nation of regions with often disparate political, cultural and economic contexts.