Clean Power Plan: Analysis: EPA Emerges From Court Battle With The Edge

"[Tuesday] was a good day for U.S. EPA, observers on both sides of a fierce legal struggle over the future of the Obama administration's landmark climate change rule conceded as they emerged from federal appeals court.

Many thought the agency and supporters of the Clean Power Plan had an edge during the nearly seven hours of oral arguments at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. It quickly became apparent, though, that the agency's biggest legal hurdle may come from its attempts to make the standards for power plants more flexible, affordable and ambitious.

The most contentious questions focused on a big issue: how the regulation set state-specific carbon levels for power plants.

Rather than looking at what individual coal plants could do to limit greenhouse gas emissions, EPA assumed the industry as a whole could accelerate a trend away from coal and toward cleaner natural gas and renewable power."

Emily Holden reports for ClimateWire September 28, 2016.

SEE ALSO:

"Clean Power Plan: Inside The Judges' Questions On Carbon Trading" (ClimateWire)

"Clean Power Plan: In Debate Over Legal Standard, 'How Transformative Is Transformative?'" (EnergyWire)