A federal appeals court Sept. 17 tossed legal challenges to the Clean Power Plan, agreeing with the argument that they should be dismissed as moot because the Trump administration has replaced the Obama-era regulation targeting existing fossil fuel-fired power plants.
Finalized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2015, the Clean Power Plan sought to cut planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions 32% below 2005 levels by 2030 from the power sector by using its authority under the Clean Air Act to encourage states to shift away from coal-fired generation. However, in an unprecedented move, the U.S. Supreme Court in February 2016 stayed the regulation before it could take effect amid a legal challenge brought by 27 coal-reliant states, coal producers and electric utilities.
Supporters and foes of the Clean Power Plan eventually delivered oral arguments regarding the rule before a full panel of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in September 2016. But the court never issued a ruling on whether the Clean Power Plan's interpretation of the Clean Air Act was legal, instead agreeing to allow the Trump administration to reconsider the sweeping rule.
In June, the EPA finalized its replacement regulation: the Affordable Clean Energy, or ACE, rule. Unlike the Clean Power Plan's systems-based approach, the ACE rule has adopted a narrow interpretation of the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases from the power sector by only requiring efficiency upgrades known as heat-rate improvements at existing coal plants.
Following the ACE rule's finalization, a coalition of petitioners in the Clean Power Plan litigation in July urged the D.C. Circuit to dismiss their legal challenges as moot, and the EPA subsequently filed a motion in support of that request. The D.C. Circuit did not detail its legal reasoning in a brief Sept. 17 per curiam order dismissing the Clean Power Plan litigation.
Meanwhile, the EPA has asked the D.C. Circuit to expedite its consideration of legal challenges to the ACE rule. In an Aug. 28 court filing, the EPA argued that the court should fast-track the proceedings because, among other things, the agency's "regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants remains a matter of intense public interest."
Environmental and public health groups challenging the ACE rule have opposed that move, arguing the EPA has failed to make a compelling case for why the D.C. Circuit should grant its request. The court has yet to rule on the EPA's Aug. 28 motion to expedite the case.
Legal challenges to the ACE rule are being consolidated under a case captioned American Lung Association v. EPA (No. 19-1140).
