Supreme Court overturns E.P.A. air quality rule
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote on June 29 ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not properly consider the costs of regulation when it set limits in 2011 on toxic air pollutants emitted from coal-fired power plants.
The case “Michigan ET AL v Environmental Protection Agency ET AL,” focused on the E.P.A.’s first limits on mercury, arsenic and acid gases, or mercury and air toxics (MATS) emitted by coal-fired power plants. Opponents to the E.P.A. regulation said it was among the costliest ever issued and resulted in the end of building new coal-fired power plants and the shuttering of some.
“The Clean Air Act directs the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants from power plants if the agency finds regulation ‘appropriate and necessary,’” Justice Scalia said in the majority opinion. “We must decide whether it was reasonable for E.P.A. to refuse to consider cost when making this finding.”
The E.P.A. can attempt to re-write the rule if it considers costs.
A report in The Hill said the ruling “struck down a major environmental priority for President Obama, (but) it is not a complete loss” because most power plant operators already had complied by shutting down coal-fired plants or retrofitting them to comply, or have firm plans to comply.
Separate carbon limits for power plants are expected to shut down more than half of coal-fired plants in the United States. The June 29 ruling may help the E.P.A. defend its carbon limits in court as opponents of the rule contend the Clean Air Act prohibits the E.P.A. from regulating power plants’ carbon output if other pollution from plants is regulated under another section of the law.
