"The EPA’s lawyers and rule writers face challenges as they work to finalize incoming carbon rules that avoid running afoul of the Supreme Court’s recent decision on power plant emissions, but the long runway up to the decision gave the agency adequate time to prepare, court watchers say.

The Supreme Court ruled last week that the Environmental Protection Agency didn’t have express permission from Congress to regulate on a broad, sector-wide basis under the Clean Air Act. The ruling didn’t rescind any authority to regulate greenhouse gases, but major, science-based moves to mitigate severe climate impacts got harder.

“EPA probably indicated that it recognized some things were going to be in the works with respect to the new power sector climate change regs when it informed the court that it was going to push things back to next spring, according to Morgan Lewis partner Rick Rothman. The agency updated its timeline to March 2023 to release carbon rules for existing power plants.

But the limits the court put on the agency will still prove to be an obstacle, Rothman said."

Stephen Lee and Jennifer Hijazi report for Bloomberg Environment July 7, 2022. [2]

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"The Silver Lining For EPA In Supreme Court Climate Ruling" (E&E News) [3]