A group of fifteen state attorneys general filed a petition in federal court to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) recently unveiled Clean Power Plan, in the first of several expected legal challenges to the new regulation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas pollution. Attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming urged the D.C. Circuit appellate court […]

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On August 3, 2015, President Obama and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) released the final version of an ambitious regulation for cutting greenhouse gas pollution. The “Clean Power Plan” sets forth EPA’s first ever emission reduction standards on carbon pollution from U.S. power plants, standards that every state will be required to meet based on their individual energy consumption. The Plan also includes an incentive program for states to […]

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This week, the Supreme Court struck down EPA’s decision to regulate power plants under the Clean Air Act (CAA). The demise of the regulation is significant. Compliance was costly and complicated, but the basis for this holding is more fair-reaching. The Court held the EPA can regulate power plants under the CAA only if the “regulation is appropriate and necessary.” The loose standard set by Chevron and the interpretive deference […]

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