Appeals Court Unanimously Sides With Biden EPA On Updated Power Plant Rules

"A federal appeals court on Friday unanimously denied a lawsuit from a coalition of Republican attorneys general and the fossil fuel industry seeking to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) pollution standards for power plants.

The three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with the EPA on the standards, required under the Clean Air Act, which regulate emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants.

The EPA unveiled the new standards in April, nearly two years after the Supreme Court blocked the Obama-era version of the plan. Twenty-seven Republican state attorneys general sued for a stay of the plan, citing the Supreme Court decision.

In its ruling, the panel disagreed, writing that “petitioners have not shown they are likely to succeed on [their] claims given the record in this case. Nor does this case implicate a major question under West Virginia v. EPA … because EPA has claimed only the power to ‘set emissions limits under Section 111 based on the application of measures that would reduce pollution by causing the regulated source to operate more cleanly[,]’ a type of conduct that falls well within EPA’s bailiwick.”"

Zack Budryk reports for The Hill July 19, 2024.

 

Source: The Hill, 07/23/2024