Unpacking an Outcome: West Virginia v. EPA
On June 30, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court restricted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to regulate greenhouse gasses. In the case West Virginia v. EPA, the court reasoned 6-3 that the EPA exceeded its authority by attempting to regulate greenhouse gasses under the Clean Air Act – instead, it claimed, only Congress has the power to create these regulations.
By limiting the EPA’s authority to set greenhouse gas standards, this decision appeared (at least at first) to be a major blow to the fight against climate change.
As significant as this case is, though, the case itself can be difficult to understand. So, in the next few weeks, we’ll have a series of blog posts explaining what exactly West Virginia v. EPA means. And first, we’ll discuss the background of the case.
What is the EPA?
Since this case affects the EPA’s power, one key thing to understand is: what exactly is the EPA, and what do they do?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a federal agency which serves a few functions, including conducting research and developing and enforcing environmental regulations. It was created in the 1970’s in response to the growing environmental movement, and the purpose was to consolidate many environmental tasks under one agency. And one of these key tasks – the power being examined by the Supreme Court case – is researching environmental pollutants and setting and enforcing standards for air and water quality, and individual pollutants. And the EPA gets this power from laws passed back in the 1970’s – the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.
What is the Clean Air Act?
The Clean Air Act is a 1970 law created by Congress to protect the public from air pollution. It delegates power to the EPA to set national air quality standards for common pollutants – in other words, it determines the maximum concentration of a given pollutant that is allowed in the air. In turn, states are meant to adopt enforceable plans to meet these standards.
With this general power – the ability to control pollutants – in mind, it seems logical that the EPA would be able to control a particular pollutant: carbon dioxide. And in fact, this was the exact reasoning of an Obama-era policy: the Clean Power Plan.
What is the Clean Power Plan?
Based on a 2011 Supreme Court ruling, the Clean Air Act provides the EPA with the authority to control carbon pollution from power plants. So, issued in 2015 by the EPA, the Clean Power Plan sets standards and gives states the opportunity to design their own path towards cleaner energy. Specifically, the Clean Power Plan establishes national carbon dioxide emissions performance standards for existing power plants. Then, each state is responsible for enforcing emissions standards for its own coal and gas plants. And, in the case that a state does not limit its power plant pollution, the EPA regulates those plants directly.
However, the Clean Power Plan was never actually implemented. Soon after the plan was published, 150 entities challenged it in court. And in February 2016, the Supreme Court halted implementation of the plan while it was still under review in a lower court. Finally, in 2019, the EPA repealed the Clean Power Plan and replaced it with the less stringent Affordable Clean Energy rule.
So, if the Clean Power Plan was repealed in 2019, how does the 2022 Supreme Court case relate? In the next post in this series, we’ll discuss the reasoning and outcome of West Virginia v. EPA.
By Karlie Hayes, Marketing Strategy Intern, karlie@usefull.us