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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Supreme Court allows Biden EPA to enforce climate rules for power
plants
By Ella Nilsen and John Fritze, CNN
Updated:
4:02 PM EDT, Wed October 16, 2024
Source: CNN
The Supreme Court on Wednesday handed President Joe Biden a surprise
victory as it allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to
temporarily enforce its rules regulating planet-warming pollution from
power plants.
The justices denied the emergency request from more than 20 Republican
state attorneys general and industry groups that asked for the new
Biden power plant rules to be temporarily halted while a lower court
challenge plays out.
The EPA’s new rules will compel existing coal and new natural gas
power plants to either cut or capture 90% of their climate pollution
by 2032. The rules are expected to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions
from the sector by 75% compared to a peak in 2005.
Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch said in a brief statement
that they believe the states and groups have “shown a strong
likelihood” of success on the merits of at least some of their
challenges. But, Kavanaugh wrote, because the agency’s rule
didn’t require them to take any action until next year, there was no
reason to rule in their favor right now on the court’s emergency
docket.
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas said he would have granted the
request from the states and groups. Justice Samuel Alito, another
conservative, recused himself.
The Supreme Court’s rulings were the latest in a series of surprising
wins for the EPA in recent weeks on the high court’s emergency
docket. Earlier this month, the court that would cut emissions of
the planet-warming gas methane as well as mercury. There were no noted
dissents when the court resolved those matters.
But it was the emissions appeals, filed back in July, that were mostly
closely watched by environmental groups.
In their filing with the Supreme Court, the challengers said the EPA
rules would be too costly for power plants and could force them to
close. And they told the court that the EPA rules relied on
“inadequately demonstrated technologies on unworkable timeframes,
effectively squeezing plants into retirement.”
In a 2022 ruling, the Supreme Court curbed the EPA’s power to
regulate pollution from power plants but did not entirely take away the
agency’s authority to do so. In crafting the most recent power plant
rules, which were finalized earlier this spring, the EPA tried to hew
as close to the law as possible, anticipating legal challenges.
In a recent interview with CNN, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said
his agency “took to heart” the 2022 ruling restricting it, and
flatly said his agency’s new rules were completely different from the
Obama-era Clean Power Plan struck down by the court.
“We’re looking at something completely different that’s on the
right side of the law,” Regan said. “In anticipation of a skeptical
court, we took our time when we put this rule out.”
After the significant court challenge to the Obama-era rules prevailed
at the Supreme Court in 2022, the new regulations give power generators
options to choose how they meet pollution requirements.
The Biden administration’s proposal would push utilities to outfit
many power plants with expensive carbon capture technology or add clean
hydrogen fuel to reduce their emissions. The rules are being paired
with generous tax subsidies for carbon capture and hydrogen in
Biden’s climate law to help bring down the cost. But Republican
attorneys general and industry are still arguing it’s too expensive
for plants to do.
“Our position remains the same: this rule strips the states of
important discretion while using technologies that don’t work in the
real world,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, one of
the leaders of the lawsuit, said in a statement.
The EPA also announced in February it would delay its rulemaking
process for carbon emissions from existing gas plants, which had
initially been covered under the agency’s proposal last year.
A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, recently denied a request
from the states and groups to put the rule on hold.
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