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 plants."
EPA's statements create uncertainty about the Clean Power
Plan's implementation schedule, and on May 13, 2016, the House
Committee on Energy and Commerce sent a letter to EPA asserting that the Agency is
circumventing the Court's order and undermining the relief
provided by the stay.
Further information about the impact of the stay is available here.
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