On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a notable win to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), permitting it to temporarily implement its regulations aimed at curbing planet-warming emissions from power plants.
In a 7-1 vote, the justices rejected an emergency appeal from more than 20 Republican state attorneys general and industry groups that sought to block these rules while awaiting the outcome of a lower court’s review.
As it stands the rules are in force but this decision from the Supreme Court only removes it from its emergency docket. It can also be interpreted as the majority being in favor of the rules but it’s likely that it will see more challenges.
The ambitious but flexible EPA emissions rules
In May 2023 the agency announced its new standards for coal and new natural gas-fired power plants that were expected to avoid more than 600 million metric tons of CO2 pollution through 2042.
The rules stated that coal plants would have to capture 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and natural gas units will have until 2035 to capture the same amount of CO2. The standards aimed to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 2035.
In March 2024 the EPA announced that it will remove existing natural gas power plants from the regulations the industry saw as too demanding.
What’s next?
EPA representatives had communicated that part of the reason for the delay in rolling out the rules was that they were trying to make them resistant to any potential appeals and that has proved to be the case so far.
The strong 7-1 ruling could be seen as somewhat of a surprise and bodes well for the future, but the broader landscape could be changing.
In the eventuality of a second Trump presidency the EPA’s role itself could experience a dramatic revision, with unclear consequences on its authority.
David Bernhardt, the former Trump administration Interior Secretary, has previously stated that Trump would “rescind every one of Joe Biden’s industry-killing, job-killing, pro-China and anti-American electricity regulations,” and that “A tsunami of new demand is headed for the grid, from the AI revolution, residential electrification and electric vehicle mandates. And at the exact same time of these new demands, the Biden-Harris administration has put severe constraints on the ability of the grid to grow.”
During his 2016-2020 administration Trump rolled back over 125 environmental regulations and this could be the case in a potential new term.
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