Biden Off To The Races — With A Boost From The D.C. Circuit

"Policy priorities may change from one administration to the next," the D.C. Circuit pronounced, but the Trump EPA's "tortured series of misreadings of [the Clean Air Act] cannot unambiguously foreclose the authority Congress conferred." In a long-awaited ruling, issued just one day before inauguration, the court upheld EPA's broad authority to address carbon emissions from power plants under Section 111(d) of the act. The opinion will boost the Biden administration's ambitious climate agenda, which is already underway through a day one executive order.

In 2015, the Obama EPA promulgated the Clean Power Plan as a centerpiece of its efforts to fight climate change. For the first time, EPA wielded its authority to address carbon emissions from coaland gas-fired power plants, the largest emitting sector in the U.S at the time. The Supreme Court stayed the CPP pending appeal. Yet before