Supreme Court

Public benefits offered by the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) far outweigh the costs, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said as it released a review of the 2012-finalized rule’s cost implications. The final cost consideration—released just days before power plants that received a one-year extension must come into compliance with the rule—was prompted by […]

Over the past week, several states took action on the Clean Power Plan as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged governors to “wait and see” on the carbon rule, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) chief defended the rule. McConnell Urges Governors to Halt Compliance Work. In a March 21 letter to the National […]

Merrick Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, is President Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here’s a roundup of Garland’s more recent power sector rulings. July 2015: On Backup Generators Chief Judge Garland and senior circuit Judges Williams and Randolph repealed part of the Environmental Protection […]

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rejected the plea of 20 states to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule while the agency works to comply with a previous ruling. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette had requested the stay to pause any further action to implement the rule […]

In the week since the highest court in the U.S. issued an unprecedented ruling to stay the Clean Power Plan—as at least two states suspended compliance efforts—the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia may have boosted the odds that the Obama administration’s efforts to stem power plant carbon emissions will pass judicial review. The […]

Following the D.C. Circuit’s denial of motions for stay, 26 states have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to immediately block the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) contentious Clean Power Plan from taking effect. The January 26 application, directed to Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., notes that the states filed petitions for review of the carbon rule […]

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) will remain in effect as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) works on a final cost finding, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered on Dec. 15. The court noted in a two-page order that the EPA “has represented that it is on track to issue […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will issue revised Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) and legally required cost-benefit analyses by April 15, 2016, court documents show. In an Aug. 10 motion filed with the D.C. Circuit for White Stallion Energy Center v. EPA (12-1100), the EPA said it intends to seek remand without vacatur (which […]

Mississippi Power must rebate $281 million in funds collected since 2013 for rate increases related to the lignite-fired power plant under construction in Kemper County, the Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) ordered on Tuesday.  The state regulatory body also ordered the company and its parent company Southern Co. to stop collecting Kemper’s rate on customer […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan will certainly be challenged in court, but states and power companies must expend enormous resources developing and complying with state plans regardless of the outcome, witnesses testified on March 17 at a House hearing on the proposal’s legal and cost issues.  The three-hour-long hearing at the House […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) have been seen by many in the coal-fired power industry as potentially more expensive and onerous than its Clean Power Plan, which addresses greenhouse gases. On Nov. 25, the Supreme Court agreed to review a consolidated case that could potentially prevent the MATS […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up industry’s challenge to a federal court ruling that upheld the Bush administration’s air quality standard for ozone.  The high court’s denial leaves intact the D.C. Circuit’s July 2013 decision upholding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) last revision of its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) […]

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A divided Supreme Court on Monday partly reversed a 2012 federal court decision, ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act when it required permitting for stationary sources based on their greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. In a 5–4 ruling, the court’s right-leaning majority concluded that the agency may not […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded its authority under the federal Clean Air Act when it promulgated the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) in 2011, nine states argue in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court last week. The brief filed by a bipartisan group of attorneys general from Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, […]

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a narrow challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) authority to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from stationary sources, including power plants. In a mixed bag for groups fighting the EPA’s GHG regulation, the high court on Tuesday accepted for review six petitions—which were consolidated for oral […]

Though a stalemate on the federal budget endures in Congress, and the federal government continues to be partially shut down, the Supreme Court began its new term on Oct. 7 by announcing that it had accepted two cases seeking a review of the invalidated Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). The two CSAPR cases, EPA, […]