GOOD NEWS! Attempts to block EPA Carbon Rule fail. (for now)
Today, the United States Supreme Court rejected requests from a group of states and industry polluters to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s crucial carbon pollution standards for power plants.
The Supreme Court denied the motion to halt the regulations while litigation continues in lower courts. Prior to these regulations, power plants have had no limits on the carbon they emit, contributing to climate change, leading to extreme and sometimes deadly and destructive weather events.
The EPA has been attempting to regulate carbon dioxide from power plants since 2012. Today’s United States Supreme Court decision means that the 2024 Carbon Rule regulations will go into effect even while they are being challenged.
The EPA’s carbon pollution standards for existing coal-fired power plants and new gas-fired power plants are a huge deal. Coal-fired power plants produce 53% of the energy sector’s carbon emissions; gas-fired power plants produce 45% of the energy sector’s emissions. These new standards will achieve measurable results in curbing climate pollution, protecting our health and environment.
Today’s ruling correctly recognizes that requests from the dirty energy industry and their allies to delay these safeguards are absurd. Polluters don’t need emergency relief from standards that don’t kick in for years.
But the fight is not over. Polluters still intend to fight these important, common-sense standards in the lower courts. The lower court must move expeditiously to rule on the merits of the case, and uphold the EPA’s Carbon Rule.
This decision is in stark contrast to that of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court regarding challenges to PA’s carbon budget and trade rule, known as the RGGI (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative) rule, when it temporarily halted the rule from going into effect while the litigation makes its way through the courts. Nevertheless, because of the United States Supreme Court’s decision today to not stop EPA’s Carbon Rule, industry will be required to start figuring out what it needs to do to address harmful carbon emissions.
While the Supreme Court’s decision is a good step for stronger climate rules at the federal level, PennFuture will continue to defend our constitutional environmental rights and push for more federal and state actions that address climate pollution and protect public health.