Affordable Clean Energy - West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency - SCOTUSblog

The ACE Rule

On June 19, 2019, EPA issued the final Affordable Clean Energy rule (ACE) – replacing the prior administration’s overreaching Clean Power Plan with a rule that restores rule of law, empowers states, and supports energy diversity. The ACE rule establishes emission guidelines for states to use when developing plans to limit carbon dioxide (CO2) at their coal-fired electric generating units (EGUs). In this notice, EPA also repealed the CPP, and issued new implementing regulations for ACE and future rules under section 111(d). 

On January 19, 2021, the D.C. Circuit vacated the Affordable Clean Energy rule and remanded to the Environmental Protection Agency for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.

One would think that a vacated rule has no effect mooting the dispute.  Not so, say the challenging states. Oddly? a large group of power companies defends the EPA for giving them flexible authority.- GWC 

West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency - SCOTUSblog

Issue: Whether, in 42 U.S.C. § 7411(d), an ancillary provision of the Clean Air Act, Congress constitutionally authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to issue significant rules — including those capable of reshaping the nation’s electricity grids and unilaterally decarbonizing virtually any sector of the economy — without any limits on what the agency can require so long as it considers cost, nonair impacts and energy requirements.

Amy Howe: Greenhouse gases and “major questions”: Justices to hear argument on EPA’s power to tackle climate change