Clean Power Plan
Guess Who Benefits From Regulating Power Plants
The answer will surprise you.
What parts of the country benefit most from the series of new EPA rules addressing pollution from coal-fired power plants? The answer is not what you think. EPA does a thorough cost-benefit analysis of its regulations but the costs and benefits are aggregated at the national level. In a new paper, David Spence and David Adelman from the University …
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CONTINUE READINGDueling Laws and the Clean Power Plan
EPA has shifted its position toward more readily defensible ground.
One of the most serious legal challenges to EPA’s Clean Power Plan — and probably the only one that could completely derail it — involves an exceptionally abstruse legal issue. When Congress tried to amend an obscure part of the Clean Air Act, someone screwed and two different versions were included in the final law. That …
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CONTINUE READINGCoal States File Premature Petition to Block Clean Power Plan
AGs Sue For Tactical and Political Reasons Even Though Their Legal Case is a Loser
Attorneys General from 15 states, led by West Virginia, filed a petition in federal court yesterday to block the Clean Power Plan (CPP) from going into effect. The filing seems to be more tactical and political than a serious legal claim: the Environmental Protection Agency has yet to publish the rule in the Federal Register …
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CONTINUE READINGPolitics v. Legality and the Clean Power Plan
EPA’s Final Plan Changes State Targets, With New Winners and Losers
When the President released the final version of the Clean Power Plan last week, it contained a number of big alterations to the draft plan. One of the most significant changes was the way each state’s greenhouse gas emissions target was calculated. The bottom line is that — generally — states more heavily reliant on …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy legal challenges to the EPA Clean Power Plan will end up at the Supreme Court
Cross-posted from The Conversation. Even before President Obama announced the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan on August 3 to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, there were a number of legal challenges to block the law at its proposal stage – none of them successful. Earlier this year, the DC Circuit Court told …
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CONTINUE READINGGuess What? The Clean Power Plan Isn’t Going to Destroy America After All.
Compliance isn’t turning out to be that much of a burden.
Here’s the headline from the Washington Post: “Outrage over EPA emissions regulations fades as states find fixes.” Senator Mitch McConnell has been telling all and sundry the plan will be a disaster and states should refuse to have anything to do with it. But even in his home state, according to the Post, the Clean …
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CONTINUE READINGIndustry Will Try To Keep The Clean Power Plan From Taking Effect Pending Court Decision on Its Legality
Lobbyist Spin Has Begun
It’s no secret that the minute the Clean Power Plan is finalized (expected in the next couple of months), industry will sue to invalidate it. But before a court decides whether the Plan — which is designed to cut carbon emissions from the power sector by 30 percent — is legal under the Clean Air …
CONTINUE READINGWhat’s at Stake in Michigan v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court Hazardous Air Pollutant Case?
Decision expected in next few days
Although King v. Burwell (the Affordable Care Act case) and Obergefell v. Hodges (the same sex marriage case) are garnering more attention, sometime between tomorrow and Monday the Supreme Court will also hand down its decision in Michigan v. EPA. In the Michigan case, the Court will decide whether EPA’s Clean Air Act rules to regulate hazardous air pollutants …
CONTINUE READINGThe Next Six Months
A half-dozen crucial developments will shape environmental policy for years to come.
The next six months will be unusually important in environmental law. There are six key areas to keep an eye on: 1. The Paris climate talks. The world’s governments meet every year in December as part of continuing negotiations on climate issues. This year’s meeting will be the most critical since Copenhagen, six years ago. The …
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CONTINUE READINGBreaking News: D.C. Circuit Dismisses Challenge to Clean Power Plan on Procedural Grounds
But More Challenges Will Follow
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed the first challenge to EPA’s proposed Clean Air Act Section 111d rule to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants (known as the Clean Power Plan) on the grounds that the rule is only a proposed rule, not a final one. The court’s opinion can be found …
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