West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency
United States Supreme Court
142 S. Ct. 2587 (2022)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
The Clean Air Act (the act) permitted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (defendant) to set the best system of emissions reduction for power plants. States then implemented this standard for facilities within their states. In 2015, finding that coal-fired power plants needed to do more to combat climate change, the EPA issued an order requiring such plants to reduce their production of electricity or subsidize electricity generated by renewable sources. The EPA created complicated formulas to establish the emissions rates that states would have to implement. The EPA projected that its new rule would reduce coal’s national electricity-generation share from 38 percent to 27 percent by 2030. In 2019, after a change in administration, the EPA repealed the new rule, finding that the shifting of electricity generation could not be an emissions-reduction standard. Several states and other parties (plaintiffs) filed petitions for review of the repeal order. The State of West Virginia intervened to defend the repeal order. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated the EPA’s repeal of the new rules and remanded the case to the EPA. West Virginia filed a petition for certiorari, which the United States Supreme Court granted.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Roberts, C.J.)
Concurrence (Gorsuch, J.)
Dissent (Kagan, J.)
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