The Supreme Court may be poised to put new guardrails on the Biden administration’s climate agenda after justices agreed last week to consider the extent of EPA’s authority to regulate carbon emissions.
The court sent shock waves through the legal world when it agreed Friday to consider a consolidated challenge from Republican-led states and coal companies. The challenge stemmed from a federal court ruling that struck down a Trump-era regulation gutting EPA’s climate rule for power plants (E&E News PM, Oct. 29).
When the justices issue their ruling in the EPA case, which is expected by next summer, the decision could provide the first indication of how the court’s new 6-3 conservative majority will approach questions of the federal government’s role in curbing global climate change.
“This is likely to result in one of the most significant environmental rulings the court has ever reached,” said Robert Percival, director of the Environmental Law Program at the University of Maryland’s law school.
