• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package August 7, 2022
Researchers Point To ‘Dangerously Unexplored’ Risk of Global Climate Catastrophe August 2, 2022
Koch Network Pressures Manchin, Sinema as Advocates Praise ‘Game Changing’ Climate Deal August 2, 2022
Coastal GasLink Cost Skyrockets 70% to $11.2B August 2, 2022
Ottawa Releases Regulatory ‘Frame’ for Net-Zero Grid by 2035 August 2, 2022
Next
Prev

Obama Climate Plan Gets Day in Court, as U.S. Economy Decarbonizes

September 28, 2016
Reading time: 3 minutes

skeeze / Pixabay

skeeze / Pixabay

 
skeeze / Pixabay
skeeze / Pixabay

U.S. President Obama’s climate legacy and perhaps the planet’s future habitability appeared to hang yesterday on the dry proceedings in a Washington courtroom, where lawyers contested the legality of his signature Clean Power Plan.

The reality may be somewhat different, however: Clean energy experts Graham Richard and Howard Wenger argue that even a negative verdict won’t stop “everything that’s happening already, everywhere around the country” to wean America off high-carbon energy.

“The pillar of President Obama’s climate change agenda is going to court Tuesday, when federal judges hear oral arguments on whether the landmark regulation should be overturned,” The Hill reported in the lead-up to the hearing. Politico’s blog more breathlessly called it “the Super Bowl/World Series/Quidditch World Cup of climate law.”

The actual case focuses on a Clean Power Plan requirement that American generating utilities reduce their greenhouse gas emissions 32% by 2030. The mandate will fall especially heavily on states and power companies that rely most significantly on coal, forcing the closure of more than 90 GW of coal-fired generating capacity, but is regarded as essential to meeting the country’s climate commitments.

Twenty-eight states and allied industry groups challenged the rule in U.S. federal court, alleging that the emissions mandate exceeds the legal authority of the Environmental Protection Agency, which has carriage of the CPP. Eighteen states and numerous corporations, including some utilities, have joined the EPA in defence of its authority to implement the rule.

In February, in a decision issued just days before the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia, who had ruled with the majority in the matter, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that implementation of the Plan be stayed until the lower bench ruled on the dissenting states’ application.

In a sign of the seriousness with which the Court of Appeal is taking the case, it was heard yesterday by 10 of the 11 members of its Washington D.C. bench (the eleventh is D.C. Circuit Chief Justice Garland Merrick, who recused himself because he is Obama’s nominee to fill Scalia’s vacant seat)—leaving open the possibility of a hung decision.

Richard and Wenger, however, argue that angst in the climate community over the Appeals Court’s ultimate ruling is beside the point: irreversible trends in the U.S. energy marketplace are already moving it toward the same goals the CPP might accelerate.

“Here’s what’s already happening,” the two write in Advanced Energy Perspectives. “Coal-fired power is being displaced by cheaper, cleaner-burning natural gas. Utilities, previously carrying out state mandates, are now investing in wind and solar power as the cheapest new energy source in many places, while Fortune 500 companies, from Apple to Verizon, are driving the market by purchasing renewable power directly. Energy efficiency is half the cost of additional power generation. Energy storage promises to free us from costly conventional power plants that are only needed to meet peak demand a few hours a year.”

“The shifts in the electric power system required by the CPP are not technically difficult, nor will they be costly,” they continue, noting that some states are already on track to meet their targets under the plan “without taking any specific steps at all.” At the same time, they argue, opponents of the Plan put at risk US$200 billion in business income and 2.7 million U.S. jobs in advanced energy, at the same time that they “impede needed investment in modernizing the electric power system.”

Richard and Wenger note that even the Republican Attorney General of West Virginia, Patrick Morrisey, one of those leading the challenge to the EPA, “concedes it will not be enough to revive an economy based on coal power, given the market’s movement away from this fuel.”



in Climate & Society, Coal, Energy Politics, Fossil Fuels, Jurisdictions, Legal & Regulatory, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Bernard Spragg/flickr
Energy Politics

$12.3B in Profit over 3 Months as Big Fossils Reject Federal Emissions Cap

August 11, 2022
270
Σ64/Wikimedia Commons
Hydrogen

Global Push for Hydrogen Sidesteps Knowledge Gaps on Climate Impacts

August 11, 2022
316
Protect The Planet
Pipelines / Rail Transport

Trans Mountain Work Site Blocks Early Salmon Run on Coquihalla River, Local Observers Say

August 11, 2022
409

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

August 2, 2022
1.6k
Early stages of construction on the Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor in France

Failing French Nuclear Plants Drive Up Electricity Costs as Heat Waves Cut Production

August 8, 2022
569
Protect The Planet

Trans Mountain Work Site Blocks Early Salmon Run on Coquihalla River, Local Observers Say

August 11, 2022
409
Bernard Spragg/flickr

$12.3B in Profit over 3 Months as Big Fossils Reject Federal Emissions Cap

August 11, 2022
270
Σ64/Wikimedia Commons

Global Push for Hydrogen Sidesteps Knowledge Gaps on Climate Impacts

August 11, 2022
316
Muramasa/Wikimedia Commons

Newfoundland Wind Farm Would Power Coastal Green Hydrogen Plant

July 17, 2022
694

Recent Posts

Focus Blame for Climate Change on Fossils and Governments, Ecoanalytics Advises

August 11, 2022
129
TheKurgan/Wikipedia

Ontario Pension Giant May Be Getting the Memo on Fossil Divestment, Members Say

August 11, 2022
102
@stan_sdcollins/Twitter

Stranded Communities Hope for Emergency Food Supplies as Newfoundland Wildfires Rage

August 11, 2022
53
Maurizio Pesce/Wikimedia Commons

Tesla Lobbying Points to Ontario as Possible EV Manufacturing Site

August 11, 2022
42
MENA/Flickr

Ontario Gains from U.S. EV Tax Credit, But Plans No Incentives for Local Drivers

August 11, 2022
39
Twitter

Shelling of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Plant Raises Fears for Nuclear Safety

August 11, 2022
39
Next Post
Bill McKibben

Fossil fuel majors ignore climate crisis

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}