The Supreme Court-ordered stay of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants should result in the delay of all deadlines under the rule, according to a white paper released Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
”We believe the proper interpretation of the Court’s order is that the Stay tolls all the Rule’s deadlines—not just those that actually fall during the Stay—for at least the period of time the Stay is in place. In the hypothetical scenario in which the courts might eventually uphold the Rule, EPA is required to move all the Rule’s deadlines into the future by at least the amount of time between the Stay’s issuance and its expiration,” the paper says.
The stay, issued in early February, halted the implementation of the Clean Power Plan until the Supreme Court decides the rule’s legality or allows a lower-court decision to stand. Currently, a group of more than 150 petitioners has filed a legal challenge to the rule in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for June 2.
Following the decision of that case, it will almost certainly be appealed to the Supreme Court. If the court declines to hear the case, which is thought unlikely, the decision of the lower court will stand and the stay will be lifted. The more probable result of the appeal request is that the case will go to the Supreme Court and not be decided until 2017 or even 2018, well after the first, and maybe second, deadlines in the rule. The first deadline hits in September 2016, when states are required to either submit action plans to meet their goals under the regulation, or requests for an extension. September 2017 is the final deadline for states to submit plans.
