A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday immediately halted President Obama’s controversial new power plant regulations, dealing a blow to the administration’s sweeping plan to address global warming. In a 5-4 decision, the court suspended imposition of the plan until after legal challenges are settled.
The unexpected step is a victory for the coalition of 27 mostly Republican-led states and industry opponents that call the regulations “an unprecedented power grab.” By temporarily freezing the rule the high court’s order signals that opponents have made a strong argument against the plan. A federal appeals court last month refused to put it on hold.
The confronting ruling, which was issued last summer by the Environmental Protection Agency, requires states to make major cuts to greenhouse gas pollution created by electric power plants, the nation’s largest source of such emissions. The plan could change the nation’s electricity system, cutting emissions from existing power plants by a third by 2030, from a 2005 baseline, by closing hundreds of heavily polluting coal-fired plants and increasing production of wind and solar power.
“Climate change is the most significant environmental challenge of our day, and it is already affecting national public health, welfare and the environment,” Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. wrote in a brief urging the Supreme Court to reject a request for a stay while the case moves forward.
Environmentalists did not expect the high court to step in, particularly since the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hold oral arguments in June and the states would not have had to come into compliance until 2018.
“Power plants are the single biggest source of harmful carbon pollution that contributes to climate change,” Obama said in a video released last August. “Until now, there have been no federal limits to the amount of carbon pollution plants dump in the air.”
Karen Harned, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, celebrated the Supreme Court’s action.
“What the court said today is that states cannot be forced to comply with a regulation that it may ultimately decide is unconstitutional. This is a temporary but important victory for small businesses, which were facing substantially higher energy costs.”
The White House on Tuesday night said it disagrees with the court decision but said it expects the rule will survive the legal challenge.
“We remain confident that we will prevail on the merits,” the White House said, adding that the Environmental Protection Agency will continue to work with states that want to cooperate and that it will continue to take “aggressive steps” to reduce carbon emissions.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey described the Supreme Court action on Tuesday as a “historic and unprecedented victory” over the EPA.
Tom Donahue, chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the high court stay “will ensure that America will not be forced to make costly and irreversible implementation decisions based upon an unprecedented regulation until judicial review is complete.”
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