Dr. James Conca opines that just weeks after the Obama Administration scored a victory in its Clean Power Plan, the Supreme Court on Tuesday pushed back by temporarily blocking implementation of the Plan until lower court rulings are complete, which may take years. The EPA Clean Power Plan was issued last year as an effort to combat global warming by regulating emissions from existing power plants. Natural gas, renewables, nuclear and efficiency were winners to different degrees, but coal was definitely the loser. The Plan goal is to cut emissions from existing power plants by a third, relative to 2005, over the next 15 years. In the 5-to-4 vote to issue a stay on this Plan, the Supreme Court did not actually kill the Plan. The Court just stopped its implementation until after an appeals court rules on a challenge to the Plan by 27 states and dozens of corporations and industry groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Another federal appeals panel on January 21st rejected the challenge, so it was appealed again. If the case makes it to the Supreme Court, Plan supporters fear that this stay by SCOTUS signals their dislike of the Plan and that they will actually kill it. Since the Supreme Court has never before granted a request to halt a regulation before it was reviewed by a federal appeals court, it looks bad for this Plan. Critics claim that the Plan is inherently unfair, punishes taxpayers and will destroy our economy, similar to what was claimed for the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and a host of other environmental changes that have kept our country reasonably cleaner and safer than most other nations in the world. Fair to say none of that ever happened. And none of that will happen if this Plan gets enacted. What would happen is the United States would get much cleaner and healthier air, regardless of what you think about climate change.
Original URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/02/11/scotus-chickens-out-on-plan-to-reduce-carbon-emissions/#6a92791e1ed6
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