Breaking: #SCOTUS Grants Stay in Clean Power Plan Cases

February 9th, 2016

This afternoon, the Supreme Court has granted a stay in five applications for a stay in the “Clean Power Plan” litigation. Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan dissented from each grant. Here is the order in 15A773, West Virginia v. EPA:

The application for a stay submitted to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is granted. The Environmental Protection Agency’s “Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units,” 80 Fed. Reg. 64,662 (October 23, 2015), is stayed pending disposition of the applicants’ petitions for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and disposition of the applicants’ petition for a writ of certiorari, if such writ is sought. If a writ of certiorari is sought and the Court denies the petition, this order shall terminate automatically. If the Court grants the petition for a writ of certiorari, this order shall terminate when the Court enters its judgment.

Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, Justice Sotomayor, and Justice Kagan would deny the application.

This is a hugely significant development, and puts on hold all of the implementation of the Clean Power Plan–including the requirement for states to begin submitting plans of how to comply with the new regulations.