Clean Power Plan Compliance Deadlines Uncertain

On February 9, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of the Clean Power Plan pending the disposition of petitions for review currently before the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and any subsequent petitions for a writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court. Oral argument before the D.C. Circuit is scheduled for September 27, 2016, and an appeal to the Supreme Court is almost certain following the D.C. Circuit's decision. A lift of the stay may therefore not occur until 2017 or 2018. This timeline conflicts with some of the initial deadlines in the Clean Power Plan.

Although the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA" or "Agency") was not successful in preventing the stay, the Agency has failed to expressly acknowledge that compliance deadlines must therefore be postponed. To the contrary, EPA has stated that the Agency will "continue to provide tools and support" to "states that choose to continue to work to cut carbon pollution from power