Energy

Court: States will have to wait for review of EPA climate rule

WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court has dismissed challenges to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed climate rule filed by a slew of states, including Alaska, saying it wouldn't consider challenges to the rule until it is issued in its final form.

The EPA issued a proposed regulation cracking down on carbon emissions from the nation's existing power plants nearly a year ago. The proposal is a centerpiece of President Barack Obama's plans for a crafting a climate change legacy and the target of widespread opposition from coal-heavy states.

Alaska's lawmakers have argued that the state is unfairly targeted by the rule's requirements for steep carbon cuts. In recent months, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, pressured EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to give Alaska a pass on the rule, given the state's unusual circumstances, with no connections to the power grid in the Lower 48 and resulting high costs associated with cutting carbon output.

States and coal companies that challenged the proposed rule "are champing at the bit to challenge EPA's anticipated rule restricting carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. But EPA has not yet issued a final rule," Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The parties "nonetheless ask the Court to jump into the fray now," Kavanaugh wrote. The court has never before reviewed the legality of proposed rules, and they're not going to start now, he said, dismissing a trio of cases challenging the proposal via several legal avenues.

Alaska Attorney General Craig Richards joined petitions brought by West Virginia, Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

The rule as proposed would require Alaska to cut the state's power-sector carbon emissions rate 26 percent by 2030.

The EPA is reviewing more than two million comments submitted regarding the proposed rule and plans to issue a final version later this summer.

Erica Martinson

Erica Martinson is Alaska Dispatch News' Washington, DC reporter, and she covers the legislation, regulation and litigation that impact the Last Frontier.  Erica came to ADN after years as a reporter covering energy at POLITICO. Before that, she covered environmental policy at a DC trade publication and worked at several New York dailies.

ADVERTISEMENT