Key Takeaways From U.S. Supreme Court Decision In West Virginia v. EPA

The original article was published by the American environmental boutique law firm Beveridge and Diamond with authors Eric Christensen, Brook Detterman, David Friedland, Jenny Leech and Zach Pilchen; we have added boxes of our own to explain or contextualize certain particularities of the American system that may not be familiar to a Canadian audience.

On June 30, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in West Virginia v. EPA, 597 U.S. __, 2022 WL 2347278 (June 30, 2022), a case involving the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan (CPP) and the Trump Administration's Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule. Applying the "major questions" doctrine, the Court held that EPA exceeded its statutory authority when promulgating the CPP. This decision has implications for the Biden Administration's planned re-work and reissuance of the CPP and other options for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the electric power and other sectors. It also carries