Late today the US Supreme Court issued an unusual stay on EPA’s legally highly dubious so-called “Clean Power Plan” pending judicial review of the Plan. This is a major victory for opponents of the Plan since it prevents EPA from enforcing its power plant greenhouse gas emission regulations during the lengthy judicial review of the regulations. This prevents EPA from losing the legal case but forcing industry and states to implement the regulations anyway in order to meet the deadlines imposed by EPA, as they did in the case of the mercury regulations. There have already been strong indications that this is exactly what EPA was trying to do once again.
The Supreme Court vote was 5-4 in favor of the stay, which augurs well for the final outcome of the legal case as well. The decision also probably puts off implementation until after the Obama Administration leaves office. This means that the new Administration can reconsider the rule with its enormous costs in both dollars and reduced electricity reliability prior to its implementation.