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The Supreme Court’s Ruling on West Virginia vs. EPA
Implications for the energy industry and other government organizations
The Supreme Court was busy last week before breaking for its summer recess. One of the last cases they ruled on was West Virginia vs. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Background
West Virginia brought the case, arguing that the EPA does not have the power to regulate power plant emissions and that authority can only be granted by Congress.
This case is a product of previous EPA regulations and laws. In 2015, the Clean Power Plan was issued, which required existing fossil fuel plants to decrease their production or offset their production by subsidizing the generation of renewable energy.
The Clean Power Plan was never enacted, as it was replaced in 2019 with the Affordable Clean Energy Rule.
West Virginia is known for their coal; it is important for the state’s economy and power generation. The EPA wanted to limit the emissions outputted from coal power plants, which would have been devastating to West Virginia.
On the other side, the EPA has pushed in recent years to curb greenhouse gas emissions of coal power plants, as they try to move to a system that relies more on…
