Federal Court Blocks State Challenges to Obama’s Clean Power Plan [US]

On September 9th, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals denied a request by 16 states for an emergency stay of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Clean Power Plan.

The Plan sets different target emission rates for each state with the goal of achieving a 32% reduction in carbon emissions from existing power plants by 2030 from 2005 levels.

The federal appeals court for the District of Columbia Circuit denied the plaintiff states’ request to block the Plan while the issue of the Plan‘s legality is being litigated.  The Court determined that the plaintiffs prove that the states will suffer “irreparable injury” in the time to decide the legality of the Plan.

This case is just one of many anticipated legal challenges to the Obama administration’s greenhouse gas standards for existing power plants.

Red-on-line EHS Legalist

Sources:

Emergency Petition: In Re West Virginia, et al. (2015). 

Sharon Montazeri, 15 U.S. State Attorneys General Seek Emergency Stay of Clean Power Plan, Red-on-line USA, August 14, 2015.

Final rule, fact sheets and details about the Clean Power Plan, the final standards for new, modified and reconstructed sources and the proposed federal plan are available at: Clean Power Plan

Standards of Performance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units, Prepublication Notice, August 3, 2015. 

Clean Air Act

Our EHS experts are at your disposal and will be happy to answer your questions.

We invite you to subscribe to our newsletter.