WASHINGTON (AP) — In a victory for President Joe Biden’s administration, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that a novel federal regulation limiting planet-warming pollution from coal-fired power plants can remain in effect while legal challenges continue.
Industry associations and some Republican-led states had asked the court to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule by emergency measure, saying it was unworkable and threatened the reliability of the national power grid.
The EPA rule, announced in April, would force many coal-fired power plants to eliminate 90 percent of their carbon emissions or shut down within eight years. The rules are a key part of the Democratic president’s pledge to eliminate carbon emissions in the power sector by 2035 and across the economy by 2050.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected the industry’s request to block the rule, saying the groups had not shown they would succeed on the merits. Nor did the case raise a significant issue under an earlier Supreme Court ruling because the EPA merely claimed the authority to “set emission limits … that would reduce pollution by causing the regulated source to operate more cleanly,” the appeals court ruled.
The unanimous judgment also rejected the argument that immediate harm had been caused, on the grounds that the deadlines for compliance with the rules do not come into force until 2030 or 2032.
The ruling was made by Judges Patricia Millett, Cornelia Pillard and Neomi Rao. Millett and Pillard were appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, while Rao was appointed to the court by President Donald Trump, a Republican.
Environmental groups welcomed the ruling, saying the court recognized the EPA’s legal responsibility to control harmful pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions. The energy sector is the second-largest contributor to climate change in the United States.
“Americans across the country are suffering from the intense heat waves, extreme storms and floods, and increasing wildfires caused by climate pollution,” said Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund, which filed an amicus curiae brief in the case. EDF and other groups “will continue to vigorously defend the EPA’s cost-effective and achievable carbon pollution standards for power plants,” she said.
Meredith Hankins, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the EPA rule “sets common sense standards for utilities and states to reduce their carbon emissions.” The devastating heat wave that has hit much of the country is a sign of how urgently these rules are needed, she said.
“The notion that power generators would need to be immediately exempted from modest standards that would not take effect for eight years was patently absurd,” Hankins added. West Virginia and other states that have challenged the rule “still have plenty of time to begin their planning processes” to comply with the rule, she said.
The National Mining Association, which joined the lawsuit, said it would ask the Supreme Court for an injunction.
“The stakes couldn’t be higher. The nation’s power supply is already stretched to its limits, and this ruling flies in the face of what the nation’s utilities, grid operators and grid reliability experts tell us is necessary to maintain grid reliability,” said Rich Nolan, the group’s president and CEO.
Nolan and other industry leaders said the rule would lead to the premature closure of power plants that are critical to maintaining grid reliability despite rising electricity demand.
Timothy Carroll, an EPA spokesman, said the agency was pleased that the court left the power plant regulation in place while the litigation was ongoing.
“EPA’s final standards will significantly reduce harmful carbon emissions from existing coal-fired power plants, which remain the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector,” Carroll said.
The EPA estimates that the rule will result in a net climate and health benefit of up to $370 billion and avoid nearly 1.4 billion tons of carbon emissions by 2047. That’s equivalent to avoiding the annual emissions of 328 million gasoline-powered cars.
With the Power Plant Ordinance, the federal government has for the first time constrained the carbon dioxide emissions of existing coal-fired power plants. The ordinance would also force future power plants that run on coal or natural gas to control up to 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at https://apnews.com/hub/us-environmental-protection-agency.
