Petitioners in a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s New Source Performance Standards for new-build coal-fired power plants will have until July 15 to submit briefs to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit under the court’s briefing schedule. The suit is led by North Dakota and challenges the merits of the rule, which essentially mandates the use of partial carbon capture and storage on all new-build coal-fired power plants.
According to the state, the rule “exceeds EPA’s statutory authority, goes beyond the bounds established by the United States Constitution and is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and not in accordance with law.”
North Dakota has been joined in the suit by West Virginia, Murray Energy Corp., the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Peabody Energy Corp., the Utility Air Regulatory Group, the National Mining Association, the Indiana Utility Group, the United Mine Workers of America, Alabama Power Co., the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, Luminant Generation Co., and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
Under the ordered briefing schedule, all petitioners have until July 15 to file briefs, and their intervenors have until July 25. EPA must file its response by Sept. 23, and its intervenors will have until Sept. 30. Petitioners will then have until Oct. 21 to reply. “Once a briefing order has been entered, the case may be set for oral argument. Typically, the argument date will be a minimum of 45 days after briefing is completed,” according to the order.
