The Biden administration’s new power plant pollution rule cleared the nation’s second most powerful court Friday, but trade groups swiftly promised to ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said states, industry and utilities had failed to meet the court’s high bar for freezing the agency rule, which limits planet-warming emissions from new gas and existing coal-fired power plants.
The D.C. Circuit decision launches yet another high-profile EPA regulation to the Supreme Court’s domain, where the justices have previously blocked past agency rulemaking for the power sector. The regulation in question requires power plants to implement carbon capture technology that critics say isn’t ready for prime time, and that they argue goes against a previous Supreme Court decision.
But the court said challengers to the rule, who claimed the agency had overstepped its congressional authority, “have not shown they are likely to succeed on those claims given the record in this case.”
