In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to issue a stay on the EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), the Energy and Environment Cabinet is deferring its plans to conduct listening sessions on the rulemaking and gather input on compliance options.
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“[The court order] confirms that the legal justification for the Clean Power Plan should be examined by the courts before scarce state and private resources are used to develop state plans”, McHenry said, as quoted by Bloomberg News. Twenty-seven states filed lawsuits challenging the Clean Power Plan as an onerous overreach, and now the EPA must wait as those states get to make their case to the courts without having to comply with the Plan in the meantime.
Implementation of the plan is also considered key to the United States meeting targets in a global climate agreement signed in Paris last month. The states are litigating the rule, a major plank in President Obama’s climate control initiatives, in a lower circuit court in Washington, D.C.
The Clean Power Plan plans to limit carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector, with a goal of reducing emissions by 32% from 2005 levels by 2030. “This allows us to kind of take a step back and put our strategies related to the President’s clean power plan and how can we defend Kentucky coal because this issue, Clean Power Plan, really takes away our market”, said Bill Bissett, President of the Kentucky Coal Association. “I know the state of Iowa…was going to ask for a two-year extension because of its significance”.
To convince the high court to temporarily halt the plan, opponents had to convince the justices that there was a “fair prospect” the court would strike down the rule.
The first deadline under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan was supposed to be in September.
The U.S. Supreme Court put a stay on the plan and a federal appeals court will hear arguments in the case later this year.
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Obama referred to the Supreme Court decision as “unusual”, adding that his administration is very confident it is on the right side of the law. She says it would be tough on jobs, income and the future of the state. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey described the Supreme Court action on Tuesday as a “historic and unprecedented victory” over the EPA.
