Dive Brief:
- A panel of three Republican-appointed federal judges will hear a challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed carbon regulations Thursday morning, Greenwire reports.
- Coal giant Murray Energy and a coalition of 15 states are preparing to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for an "extraordinary writ" to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from finalizing its Clean Power Plan (CPP). They argue that conflicting provisions in the Clean Air Act of 1970, which governs the new regulations, were intended to prevent "redundant" air regulations, and that the Clean Power Plan duplicates the agency's 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.
- The EPA, along with a coalition of 12 states, contends that the Clean Air Act clearly allows for the carbon regulations and if there is ambiguity, that the court should accept EPA’s decision of the law's intent. EPA will also argue the Murray group has no standing because they are arguing against a single hypothetical interpretation of the rule, which is not set to be finalized until the summer.
Dive Insight:
"In the ordinary course, [judicial] review would follow EPA's final promulgation of the mandate," a Murray filing read. "But as the stakes are so high, and delay will waste enormous amounts of industry, state, and federal resources and result in increased coal fired power plant retirements that cannot be later remedied, this petition requests an extraordinary writ in aid of this Court's undoubted jurisdiction over EPA's mandate."
"Speculation," an EPA filing said, "regarding the consequences of one possible future outcome of an ongoing notice-and-comment rule making proceedings is not enough to demonstrate the concrete, particularized, and actual or imminent injury required" for constitutional standing.
The CPP provides four building blocks to emissions reductions: (1) efficiency improvements at combined cycle coal plants, (2) re-dispatch away from coal-burning energy generating units (EGUs) and to combined cycle natural gas EGUs, (3) increased renewables and nuclear, and (4) increased demand-side efficiency. The regulations aim to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 30% from 2005 levels by 2030.
