Dive Brief:
- The Environmental Protection Agency cannot set fleet-wide greenhouse gas emissions limits for existing power plants under the Clean Air Act’s Section 111(d), the Supreme Court ruled Thursday, dismissing arguments raised by a group of electric utilities, the Biden administration and others.
- Congress did not give the EPA in Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act the explicit authority to set emissions caps based on the “generation shifting” approach the agency took in the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the decision, said.
- “Today’s ruling limits the tools available to the [EPA] to sensibly reduce power plant emissions using cost-effective strategies that reflect the realities of an electric power system that is increasingly dynamic and diverse,” Jeff Dennis, Advanced Energy Economy general counsel and managing director, said in a statement. “In light of this Supreme Court decision, it will fall to Congress, state policymakers, and the markets to drive the transition to a clean energy economy.”
Dive Insight:
America’s Power, a group that supports coal-fired generation, praised the court decision.
“We are pleased the Supreme Court issued a decision that restricts the [EPA] from setting carbon dioxide standards for coal-fired power plants based on outside-the-fence measures,” Michelle Bloodworth, America’s Power CEO, said in a statement. “The issue is not whether EPA can regulate carbon dioxide emissions under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, but rather what kind of standards the agency is allowed to set.”
This case in a nutshell, thanks to Chief Justice Roberts, over dissent of Obama Justices, means Santa can come down soot filled chimneys in Pittsburgh by Christmas, and no wind or solar farm can stop him, may even save the internal combustion engine, a death knell to the EPA.