WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court announced Friday afternoon it will hear challenges from coal companies and Republican-led states to the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The high court will hear four cases brought by West Virginia, North American Coal Corporation, Westmoreland Mining Holdings and North Dakota that will be consolidated into a one-hour argument session all on questions related to how the EPA regulates greenhouse gas emissions according to the Clean Air Act.
The provision the coal companies and states are challenging allows the EPA to set guidelines for air pollution standards. Based on power given by the Clean Air Act, the 2015 Clean Power Plan sought to shift the U.S. electrical system away from coal power plants to cleaner sources. The challengers claim the provision gives the agency “unbridled power.”
“In the Clean Power Plan, the EPA promulgated standards based instead on a novel, industry-wide national ‘system’ for reducing carbon dioxide emissions by shifting power generation away from the existing sources in favor of other, ‘cleaner’ ones,” North American Coal said in its petition to the Supreme Court.
The Clean Power Plan was challenged in court but before the D.C. Circuit could review the case on the merits, the Supreme Court stayed the rule. The Trump administration EPA then repealed it and created a new rule, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which would create emissions standards for coal and gas energy plants.
However, the repeal of the Clean Power Plan was challenged and the D.C. Circuit ruled the government did have the authority to set regulations for the industry. The coal companies and red states then appealed to the Supreme Court.
North American Coal said the D.C. Circuit’s decision was a “virtual call to arms, empowering the EPA to circumvent Congress and ‘solve’ climate change on a systemic basis.”
“Denying review here would implicitly applaud that mandate, and allow it to stand as the definitive pronouncement on EPA authority,” its petition states.
The coal companies and states want the justices to defer the authority within the Clean Power Plan to Congress.
“Only the court can resolve whether EPA has this unilateral power—or if Congress must take up the mantle instead,” West Virginia’s petition states.
The EPA claims it doesn’t matter if the Clean Power Plan was lawful because the plan is no longer in effect and the EPA does not intend to bring it back. The agency wants to create a new rule that would account for new changes to the electricity sector and input from all relevant parties.
“Petitioners urge this court to grant review now to help guide the upcoming rulemaking, but that is little more than a request for an impermissible advisory opinion,” the agency said in its opposition brief. “Any further judicial clarification of the scope of EPA’s authority under Section 7411(d) would more appropriately occur at the conclusion of the upcoming rulemaking, when the courts can review a concrete and considered EPA rule, rather than speculate as to the regulatory approaches the agency might take.”
The decision from the court to hear the cases comes one day after President Joe Biden announced a policy plan dedicating $555 billion to fund clean energy and climate investments before he heads to a global climate summit in Scotland. The proposal was rolled out the same day oil and gas executives testified before Congress, where they refused to acknowledge their role in the promotion of disinformation about how fossil fuels contribute to climate change and were noncommittal on pledges to stop future efforts.
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