West Virginia v. EPA
Can the EPA Regulate Carbon Emissions related to Climate Change?
West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, 597 U.S. 697 (2022) is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning the Clean Air Act and the extent of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions related to climate change.
The case centers on the Clean Power Plan (CPP) proposed by the EPA in 2015 during the Obama administration, which aimed to reduce emissions from existing power plants through two main strategies: implementing "within the fence line" emissions reduction technologies and promoting "outside the fence line" generation shifting to cleaner energy sources like solar and wind power. The CPP faced legal challenges from several states and coal industry stakeholders, resulting in its enforcement being blocked by the courts.
In 2019, the Trump administration's EPA introduced the less stringent Affordable Clean Power rule, which also faced legal scrutiny. Despite the change in administration in 2020, the Biden administration expressed an intent to incorporate "outside the fence line" controls, keeping the case relevant to the EPA's regulatory authority.
On June 30, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that regulating existing power plants under Section 7411(d) of the Clean Air Act fell under the major questions doctrine. The Court concluded that Congress did not grant the EPA the authority to regulate emissions from existing plants through generation shifting mechanisms, effectively invalidating the Clean Power Plan. However, the ruling affirmed that the EPA retains the ability to regulate emissions at existing plants through emissions reduction technologies.