The Supreme Court’s ruling blocked the EPA from forcing power sector emitters to switch to clean energy, saying instead the agency could only mandate emissions cuts based on technology that could be deployed “within the fenceline” of power facilities themselves. This morning, the EPA unveiled a new rule that would do just that, requiring most coal and natural gas power plants to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
So, last year’s setback is now something of a legal backing for the EPA’s new position. After all, the Supreme Court has reiterated that mandating emissions cuts based on what power plants can do on-site falls squarely within the agency’s purview. Still, today’s rule doesn’t actually mandate what solutions power companies should use.
Still, he says, “that doesn’t mean they’re home free,” since there’s other ways that litigants could try to prove that the agency exceeded its authority in these new emissions regulations.Another recent irony is that it’s the supposed capabilities of carbon capture technology, long championed by the fossil fuel industry and distrusted by environmentalists, that’s now being used as a cudgel against the owners of coal and natural gas power plants.
Yet, as it became clear the EPA might begin basing emissions standards on the fact that it was feasible to use such technology, lawyers representing National Grid took a very different line. Last June, a coalition of power companies that included National Grid submitted