Clean Power Plan Lawsuit Put on Hold

 

A 10-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the request to put the litigation involving the regulations known as the Clean Power Plan in abeyance for at least 60 days while the administration plans its next steps.

 

The court also asked the administration and other parties to file briefs on whether the case should be sent back to the Environmental Protection Agency.

 

The Supreme Court last year put the regulations on hold pending the outcome of the case.

 

In a separate order issued on Friday, the same court put on hold a case challenging another set of Obama climate regulations aimed at new power plants.

 

Twenty-seven states, led by coal-producer West Virginia and industry groups, challenged the Obama regulation. Other states and environmental groups backed the former administration.

 

Trump's executive order was part of his effort to cut federal environmental regulations to revive the energy drilling and coal mining industries, a promise he made during the 2016 presidential campaign.

 

Energy analysts and executives have questioned whether Trump's broad moves against environmental regulations will provide a big benefit for their industries, and environmentalists have called his actions reckless.

 

The Clean Power Plan was designed to lower carbon emissions from existing U.S. power plants by 2030 to 32 percent below 2005 levels. It was seen as the main tool for the United States to meet the emissions-reduction target it promised to reach at U.N. climate talks in Paris in December 2015. Power plants are the largest source of U.S. carbon emissions.

 

The fate of the Clean Power Plan was first thrown into question in February 2016 when the Supreme Court made a surprise 5-4 decision to grant a request by the challengers to put the rule on hold while the appeals court considered the matter.


(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Dan Grebler)