What the Supreme Court’s halt on coal regulation means

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with conservatives seeking to delay the enforcement of President Obama’s Clean Power Plan until legal challenges are resolved. But a decision could be long in coming, particularly if the case winds up in the Supreme Court – meaning that the rules’ fate might not be determined before a new presidential administration comes into power in 2017.

Unveiled by Obama in August, the plan established a target for carbon emission reductions for each state, a goal states would then be responsible for meeting by whatever means they saw fit. The U.S. Court of Appeals is not likely to issue a ruling on the legality of the rules until months after it hears oral arguments, which begin on June 2, 2016. And many states are already well on their way to implementing the Clean Power Plan.

But we do know that the court has repeatedly upheld the EPA’s power – in fact, its responsibility – to limit climate pollution under the Clean Air Act.

Environmental groups from the Natural Resources Defense Council to the Sierra Club decried the stay and expressed confidence the plan would eventually be approved by the courts. The plan, which was introduced last August, was a vital component of the U.S. pledge at the Paris climate negotiations.

The ruling was on a 5-4 vote, with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – the court’s liberal wing – lining up against staying the rule.

Kentucky is the nation’s third-leading coal producer behind Wyoming and West Virginia, and coal generates more than 90 percent of the state’s electricity. The EPA’s Clean Power Plan remains a crucial tool to ensure that every state must do its part, and to empower them to do so.

In a blow to President Obama’s plans for combating climate change, the Supreme Court issued a stay yesterday that prevents the Clean Power Plan, the president’s initiative on fighting climate change, from restricting existing power plants’ emissions.