EPA Wins First Legal Challenge to Clean Power Plan

This past April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral arguments in two consolidated cases led by the state of West Virginia and the Ohio-based Murray Energy Corporation regarding EPA’s plan to regulate carbon dioxide emissions under the Clean Air Act. The lawsuit sought to prevent EPA from finalizing the already proposed Clean Power Plan, which is expected later this summer.

Yesterday, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Court dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that the challenge was premature:

Nevertheless, a multitude of further legal challenges are expected to be filed once the rule is finalized. Jeffrey R. Holmstead, a top EPA official in the second Bush administration and a current lobbyist for the power sector was quoted in the New York Times as saying: “Although the administration dodged a bullet, it can’t really claim the case as a big victory…The court did not say anything about the legal merits of the Clean Power Plan. All those issues are simply put off to another day.”