Supreme Court to allow Biden admin power plant climate standards to remain in place – for now

The Supreme Court is allowing the Biden administration’s climate standards on power plant emissions to remain in place, declining an emergency request to temporarily block the rule while it moves through a lower court.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a final rule in April for pollution standards under the Clean Air Act to require that all coal-fired plants running in the long term reduce 90% of their carbon emissions by 2032.  

West Virginia, along with several other Republican-led states, filed an application for a stay to put a hold on the EPA emissions standard while they challenge the rule in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — but the request was denied by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Justice Clarence Thomas would have blocked the EPA rule, while Justice Samuel Alito did not participate in the decision, according to the denial of stay order reviewed by Fox News Digital. 

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The coal-fueled Oak Grove Power Plant in Robertson County, Texas, is seen on April 29. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Justice Brett Kavanaugh released a statement regarding why the standards will remain in place, for now.

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“In my view, the applicants have shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits as to at least some of their challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule. But because the applicants need not start compliance work until June 2025, they are unlikely to suffer irreparable harm before the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decides the merits. So, this Court understandably denies the stay applications for now,” Kavanaugh said.

The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (Robert Alexander/Getty Images)

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who is leading the challenge against the EPA rule in his state, said, “This is not the end of this case.”

“We will continue to fight through the merits phase and prove this rule strips the states of important discretion while forcing plants to use technologies that don’t work in the real world,” Morrisey said in a statement. “Here, the EPA again is trying to transform the nation’s entire grid, forcing power plants to shutter.”

President Biden has said climate change is an “existential threat” to humanity. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), however, praised the court’s ruling.

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“Today, the Supreme Court rejected that end run around our country’s bedrock legal processes,” Vickie Patton, general counsel of EDF, wrote in a press release Wednesday after the ruling. “EPA’s protections will help address dangerous pollution, save people money, and create high quality jobs.”