In the wake of Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision to temporarily halt the implementation of federal carbon dioxide regulations, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet said it would also delay seeking public input on its compliance options. Finalized in August by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the regulations would require states and electric utilities to reduce emissions by reducing demand, deploying low-carbon energy sources or increasing the efficiency of existing fossil-fuel power plants.
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“We’re really proud of the work that we’ve done, and we’ll really continue that work whether the Clean Power Plan is in place or not”, Sheehan said.
More than 30 states are on track to be half way toward achieving their emissions targets in five years, and 21 states will already surpass them, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a scientific advocacy group that supports climate action.
Now the fate of Obama’s Clean Power Plan lay uncertain as the timeline for its implementation has been pushed back, and Obama’s administration is into its final 11 months.
“[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. But he points out that it was a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for federal environmental regulators to apply the Clean Air Act to power plants, the nation’s biggest producer of climate pollution.
North Dakota, along with almost 30 other states, recently sued the EPA over the rules.
Abby Foster represents the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, which opposes the Clean Power Plan.
Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in California, Obama sought to reassure donors that his plan, which is pivotal to the climate agreement he and world leaders reached in Paris a year ago, still has legal footing despite the Court’s “unusual” move.
Charlotte-based Duke Energy is among those challenging the EPA plan in court.
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West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said the Clean Power Plan violates Constitutional law, and their fight against it has nothing to do with climate change.
