U.S. Supreme Court Decides Fate Of Energy, Environment Policy
On February 28, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could limit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to regulate climate change through broad regulation of the power sector. The justices are not expected to issue their ruling for several months.
As The Hill explained, two coal companies and a group of states led by West Virginia and North Dakota, are challenging a lower court ruling that vacated a Trump-era regulation that had loosened regulations surrounding climate change when compared to the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP). The CPP had sought to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through improved efficiency measures and a movement away from coal toward natural gas and renewable energy.
Before the legal case surrounding the Trump administration rule, the Supreme Court itself had vacated the Obama-era standard. That’s when President Donald Trump came into office and replaced the CPP with the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. The ACE regulation sought to reduce emissions by improving efficiency without displacing coal.
As noted above, a lower federal court struck down the Trump-era rule, which means, at this point, neither regulation is in place. The outcome of this current case likely will have implications for how the Biden administration will move forward. Indeed, the EPA is now working on regulations for power plants, which is why the states and coal companies are seeking to limit its authority to do so.
Read more here.
In related news: on February 22, the Supreme Court opted not to consider a case concerning the Dakota Access Pipeline brought by Energy Transfer LP, the company behind the project. Last fall, a lower court had decided federal environmental reviews of the case were insufficient.
The Supreme Court’s decision means that the Army Corps of Engineers must now redo its environmental review of the project. That work actually is underway, and the Corps is expecting to have the work done by September. The pipeline carries crude from North Dakota to Illinois.
Finally, in other energy and environment-related news, the Biden administration announced last week that it will suspend or delay new federal oil and gas leasing after a federal court ruled against the process by which the administration had sought to calculate the environmental and economic impact of these projects. (Read more about that ruling here.)
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) asked to stay the court’s injunction, citing the likelihood that its appeal of the decision will succeed. In the meantime, the DOJ said, “[W]ork surrounding public-facing rules, grants, leases, permits and other projects has been delayed or stopped altogether so that agencies can assess whether and how they can proceed.”