The Supreme Court will as soon as next month review a constitutional challenge to Washington state’s carbon market, one of only two in the United States.
The justices are scheduled to meet in a closed-door conference May 15 to determine whether to take up an industry appeal of a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that upheld the cap-and-trade law.
Invenergy Thermal, an Illinois-based company that owns the largest natural gas-fired power plant in Washington state, argued in a 2022 lawsuit that the program discriminates against out-of-state facilities by imposing costs that locally-owned plants can avoid.
A district court judge rejected the lawsuit in 2023, finding that Invenergy Thermal lacked standing to advance its case under the dormant Commerce Clause, which limits state laws that discriminate against out-of-state interests.
