U.S. Appeals Court Supports EPA Regulation on Carbon Emissions

By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulation mandating significant cuts in carbon emissions from power plants can proceed. This ruling comes amidst challenges from over two dozen Republican-led states.

The EPA rule targets existing coal-fired power plants and new natural gas plants, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2032. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decided a stay was unnecessary, as the states would not face immediate harm due to the rule’s compliance deadline of 2030.

EPA spokesperson expressed satisfaction with the ruling, while West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who is leading the challenge, criticized the rule as unlawful and announced plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The regulation is part of Democratic President Joe Biden’s climate agenda and has faced opposition not only from the challenging states, which include Indiana, Ohio, and Kansas, but also from electric utility, mining, and coal industry groups.

To comply with the rule, the U.S. power industry, contributing nearly a quarter of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, will need to implement expensive emissions control technologies or shut down heavily polluting coal plants. The EPA asserts that these reductions are achievable through carbon capture and sequestration technologies. However, the challengers argue that such methods are untested in practice, prohibitively expensive, and that the EPA has overstepped its authority without explicit congressional approval.