Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The U.S. Supreme Court gave greenhouse-gas-emitting industries a partial victory on Oct. 15 when it agreed to review part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s program to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Several industry groups, including the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry trade association, brought the case. At issue is how EPA is attempting to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from industrial facilities such as refineries, power plants, and chemical companies. Much of industry’s anger has focused on EPA’s proposal, released in September, to regulate CO₂ emissions from new power plants.

The court rejected a review of EPA’s program for controlling motor vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases.

Industry groups argue that EPA’s proposed rules “overstep the authority granted by Congress in the Clean Air Act,” according to the American Petroleum Institute. Similarly, ACC says EPA “misread” the Clean Air Act, adding that EPA’s carbon dioxide permitting program “is not the appropriate way to address greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources.”

Environmental groups see it differently. The Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council applauded the court’s refusal to examine EPA’s approach to cutting CO₂ emissions from vehicles. They interpret the high court’s review of permitted requirement for stationary sources as a narrow examination.

Industry’s path to the Supreme Court has been circuitous. In a major victory for EPA last June, a federal appeals court tossed out an industry challenge. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the agency’s 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions can be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The court called EPA’s decision “unambiguously correct.” It upheld EPA’s 2010 regulation limiting CO₂ and other greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks.