West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency Case Brief Summary | Law Case Explained

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West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, 142 S.Ct. 2587 (2022)

In West Virginia versus Environmental Protection Agency, we’ll look at whether the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, had the authority to enact the Clean Power Plan.

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA has the authority to regulate power plants through the best system of emission reduction that has been adequately demonstrated. In 2015, the EPA proposed the Clean Power Plan to control carbon dioxide emissions. As part of the plan, the agency found that three measures, known as building blocks, would be the best system of emission reduction for existing coal plants. Building block three required existing coal plants to shift energy sources from coal to renewable sources, such as solar and wind.

Congress had never adopted a regulatory emissions program like the Clean Power Plan under its own authority. Instead, the EPA created the plan under its authority in Section 111 of the Clean Air Act, a rarely used section of the act that allows the agency to regulate new emission sources and specific pollutants from existing sources. Numerous states sued the EPA to challenge the plan. In 2016, the United States Supreme Court ordered a stay to stop the EPA from enforcing the plan.

In 2019, the Trump administration rescinded the Clean Power Plan and replaced it with the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which didn’t impose any generation-shifting requirements. A different group of states sued the EPA to challenge the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the Clean Power Plan. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated the administration’s decision to repeal the plan. The court also vacated the Affordable Clean Energy rule. In response, West Virginia, other states, and private companies challenged the D.C. Circuit Court’s holding. The United States Supreme Court granted cert.

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