What’s Next After West Virginia v. EPA?

The US Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA was a setback for the Environmental Protection Agency, but it leaves plenty of room for the Biden Administration to prepare a new proposal this year to reduce power plant emissions.

In a 6-3 decision, the high court said that the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, promulgated to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, exceeded the agency’s authority under the Clean Air Act. The case was on appeal from a 2021 D.C. Circuit decision that vacated Trump-era actions repealing the CPP and replacing it with the Affordable Clean Energy rule.

The immediate implications of the decision for the power sector may be minimal.

Although the CPP never went into effect, the power sector has already reduced its emissions by more than the EPA’s original goal under the plan, due primarily to low natural gas prices, the reduced cost of renewable energy, and the high cost imposed on coal-fired generation by other environmental regulations.

To read more, please click here for our full article, published in Bloomberg Law.

© Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP 2022 All Rights Reserved. This blog post is intended to be a general summary of the law and does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with counsel to determine applicable legal requirements in a specific fact situation.