The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case brought by Republican-led states and fossil fuel companies asking the court to limit the federal government’s power to curb greenhouse gases.
Petitions filed by the attorneys general of 18 states, including Indiana, and the governor of Mississippi, the state of North Dakota, Westmoreland Mining Holdings LLC and North American Coal Corp. were combined into one large case that asks the court to set the limits of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate industry-wide emissions.
President Joe Biden could not get Congress to agree to a Clean Electricity Payment Program as part of his climate plan, and now, the Supreme Court will be hearing a case that may prove just as big a setback to his plans for climate action.
The case being brought by the Westmoreland Mining Holdings LLC, a coal company that owns many fossil fuel assets, including coal mines in Montana, North Dakota and New Mexico.
In 2018, when the company was called Westmoreland Coal Co., it filed for bankruptcy and tried to sell off its assets, but only its creditors put in bids. The creditors took over the assets and established Westmoreland Mining Holdings LLC.
Even more surprising is that the combined cases involve a defunct Trump administration regulation. What was once the Affordable Clean Energy Rule (ACE Rule), was supposedly designed to control greenhouse gas pollution from the power sector.
There was just one problem with the rule. It would have reduced emissions less than 1 percent and was struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit the day before Biden’s inauguration.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a negative decision by SCOTUS could limit the EPA’s powers to regulate greenhouse gasses, in turn, allowing polluting industries to save money by avoiding costly emissions requirements and setting the world on a climate change path the planet would not be able to recover from for centuries.
Biden’s EPA has made clear to the court it has no intention of reviving the ACE rule or the Obama Clean Power Plan, but instead will pursue a different approach with new regulations.
According to Green Wire, while the justices’ rulings are notoriously difficult to predict, the court is now dominated by six conservative members — many of whom have already voiced support for reining in EPA’s regulatory authority under the Clean Air Act. So, we will just have to wait.
