On July 19, 2024, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied motions requesting a stay of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2024 final rule establishing greenhouse gas emissions standards and guidelines for power plants. The D.C. Circuit concluded that the petitioners did not satisfy the “stringent requirements” for stay pending review. The court found that the petitioners did not show that they were likely to succeed on their claims that EPA acted arbitrarily and capriciously in determining that carbon capture and other emission control technologies were adequately demonstrated and that specific degrees of emissions mitigation were achievable. Citing the Supreme Court’s 2022 <a href="https://climatecasechart.com/case/american-lung-association-v-epa/">opinion</a> rejecting—under the “major questions” doctrine—EPA’s earlier attempt to regulate emissions from existing power plants in the Clean Power Plan, the D.C. Circuit found that the 2024 final rule did not implicate the major questions doctrine “because EPA has claimed only the power to ‘set emissions limits … based on the application of measures that would reduce pollution by causing the regulated source to operate more cleanly[,]’ a type of conduct that falls well within EPA’s bailiwick.” The D.C. Circuit also found that the rule’s compliance deadlines in 2030 and 2032—“years after this case will be resolved”—weighed against finding irreparable harm. The D.C. Circuit asked the parties to submit a joint proposal for expedited briefing. 

Challenge to final rule repealing the Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy Rule and establishing new greenhouse gas emissions standards and guidelines for new and existing fossil fuel-fired electric generating units.

West Virginia v. EPA

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D.C. Circuit Denied Requests for Stay of EPA Power Plant Regulations.

Filed

United States of America

District of Columbia

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

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Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

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Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

D.C. Circuit Denied Requests for Stay of EPA Power Plant Regulations.

Economic sector