The U.S. Supreme Court has limited the ability of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate power plant greenhouse gas emissions, but the ruling was more limited than some environmental advocates had feared.
The key question in West Va. v. EPA—a decision released on June 30, the final day of the court’s current session—was whether EPA during the Obama administration exceeded its authority in reinterpreting statutory language within the federal Clean Air Act, specifically Section 111(d), to set emission reduction goals beyond individual power plants but for entire systems in its 2015 Clean Power Plan. In rereading that provision of the statute, EPA said that it had authority to help facilitate the U.S. energy transition from coal-fired power to cleaner natural gas and renewables.