The US Supreme Court ruling limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants could have far-reaching consequences for the energy sector and make it more difficult for the Biden administration to meet its goal of having the electricity grid run on clean energy sources by 2035.
The nation has been gradually moving from coal to cleaner sources of electricity, such as natural gas, solar and wind power, often because they are less expensive. Most experts do not believe that the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA immediately reverse that trajectory.
But the ruling could delay the clean energy transition in the future because it places restrictions on what the EPA can do without exceeding its statutory authority. That’s a terrifying prospect, as climate experts warn of dire consequences as global temperatures and extreme weather conditions steadily rise.
Depending on how Congress or the courts interpret the court’s ruling in the future, it could also change the way other agencies can regulate the electricity sector.
The ruling will also set a tone in policymaking chambers, making it harder to persuade state lawmakers to craft legislation to boost renewable energy, said Sachu Constantine, executive director of Vote Solar, which advocates for pro-energy laws. solar in state legislatures.
“Without the threat of the EPA or federal climate regulation, without an acknowledgment that carbon pollution is really harmful, it becomes more difficult to make that argument,” Constantine said. “It makes the carbon risk or cost less likely to be felt directly by utilities or other agencies that have control over how much solar power we can deploy. And that loss of regulatory risk means they are less likely to go solar.”
The case that the Supreme Court took, West Virginia v. EPA, was presented in response to former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan. Obama’s plan would have required states to cut emissions from electricity generation, primarily by moving away from coal-fired plants. That prospect upset several industries, including coal, and some state attorneys general. They questioned how far the EPA could go to influence the industry’s transition from coal to cleaner sources.
[Con información de The Associated Press]
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