US Supreme Court temporarily halts EPA guidelines for carbon emissions

The first deadline under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan was supposed to be in September. This decision is a huge loss for our kids’ future and for all Americans who care about the health of our planet, and a huge win for the polluters and the deniers. The ruling is a setback for the Obama Administration’s efforts to address climate change.

The D.C. Circuit Court is expected to hear oral arguments on the case by June.

President Obama has vowed to keep trying to move forward with the plan and plans to reduce carbon emissions.

You may, however, comment through Facebook. Gov. Nathan Deal nonetheless directed the state’s environmental agency start on a compliance plan.

“While the Clean Power Plan could certainly be an important actor in the growth of renewable in the next 10 or 15 years, it is by no means the deciding factor”, said Jackson Morris of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Twenty-seven states filed lawsuits challenging the Clean Power Plan as an onerous overreach, and now the EPA must wait as those states get to make their case to the courts without having to comply with the Plan in the meantime.

To convince the high court to temporarily halt the plan, opponents had to convince the justices that there was a “fair prospect” the court might strike down the rule.

The Supreme Court has its judges divided as they vote 5-4 against Presidents Obama’s new power plant regulation.

Since Obama took office in 2008, “Republicans have shut Democrats out of the governor’s mansion, both U.S. Senate seats, and five of the state’s six House seats”.

“We think the U.S.is already on a great path to decarbonizing its power sector”, said Regan. “The supreme court agreed that rushing through policy like this could cause irreparable harm to state economies and the national electric grid”, Paxton said.

The unsigned, one-page order blocks the rules from taking effect while the legal fight plays out in the appeals court and during any further appeal to the Supreme Court, a process that easily could extend into 2017.