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Administrative Law Keyed to Funk
West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency
Citation:
142 S. Ct. 2587, 597 U.S. 697 (2022)Facts
In 2015, the EPA issued the Clean Power Plan under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act to address carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. Rather than limiting its approach to technological improvements at individual facilities, EPA determined that the “best system of emission reduction” included shifting electricity generation from coal-fired power plants to natural gas plants and renewable energy sources. This approach, known as “generation shifting,” would have required a nationwide transition in electricity production from 38% coal to 27% coal by 2030. The Plan was immediately challenged by multiple states and industry groups. The Supreme Court stayed its implementation in 2016. In 2019, the Trump administration repealed the Plan, concluding it exceeded EPA’s statutory authority, and replaced it with the more limited Affordable Clean Energy Rule. The D.C. Circuit vacated both the repeal and the replacement rule, prompting the Supreme Court to grant certiorari to determine whether EPA had the authority to issue the Clean Power Plan in the first place.
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