Court Puts Clean Power Plan On Hold, Uncertainty Ensues

Gov. Peter Shumlin issued the following statement after the Supreme Court put on hold the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan while litigation against the plan proceeds.

Pruitt, a Republican, said he’s convinced the court will agree with the states that the plan exceeds the president’s power. But the court rejected that motion, spurring the states to submit a brief late in January asking the Supreme Court to block the implementation of the plan.

Virginia is moving forward with efforts to reduce carbon emissions linked to climate change amid uncertainty over the future of the Obama administration’s landmark environmental initiative. Those regulations cost consumers nearly $10 billion per year, and many power plants were shuttered in the years between when the EPA issued the rule and the Supreme Court overturned them. I encourage the EPA to keep working with states that choose to continue to develop their Clean Power Plans and prepare the tools those states will need.

Georgia halted work Wednesday on plans to meet new federal rules to fight global warming, after the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Obama administration from imposing them. Hickenlooper believes he should have the authority in deciding whether the state sues over the Clean Power Plan.

With the court staying the regulations, an inference could be drawn that the same shall not be implemented until a decision is arrived on its legality.

“There were many positive things going on before the Clean Power Plan was announced, like the growth of solar in Georgia, and I think those things are going to continue even while the rule is stayed”. Rather, it’s about protecting coal-mining jobs already endangered by competition from plentiful stores of cheap natural gas unleashed by the shale fracking boom.

Although the CPP is stalled, the EPA says regulating carbon dioxide through the Clean Air Act will stand up to court scrutiny.

By the EPA’s own estimates, 14 to 19 percent of coal-fired power “is projected to be uneconomic” by 2030 under the Clean Power Plan. A final ruling may not come down until after President Obama leaves office next year.