A decision undermining the EPA's regulatory power highlights the urgency of decarbonizing the grid
On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled by a 6–3 majority in West Virginia v. EPA that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot compel utilities to switch from coal power plants to renewables, as proposed by the agency’s Clean Power Plan. Hyperbolic headlines portrayed a devastating blow to climate action, but these messages missed the nuance and limitations of the ruling. This decision targeted a policy that never went into place. (The EPA replaced the plan in 2019 with less stringent requirements.) It does not limit the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon emissions at individual plants, nor does it affect state and local government policies or targets for renewable energy—as long as those policies are not tied to the federal authority granted to the EPA.
What was compromised in this ruling is the EPA’s ability to mandate “generation shifting,” or requiring utilities to switch fuel sources for energy generation as part of a coordinated, lower-cost, national transition to renewable energy. The plant-by-plant emission reductions that the EPA is likely to pursue instead could prove more expensive for utilities and lead to higher prices in the short term (until coal plants are retired), which is why the electric utility industry opposed the Supreme Court’s decision to take this case.
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