Energy

Clean Air Act experts say EPA faces a tough legal lift to convince a key appellate court that its just-issued Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule to address power sector greenhouse gases is lawful, in part because the agency opted for a relatively risky claim that its standard-setting approach is the only permissible interpretation of the law.

EPA’s just-issued Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, which seeks to replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP), adopts a risky legal interpretation arguing that the agency is prohibited from issuing the types of broad greenhouse gas standards that were included in the CPP in a bid to block a future administration from re-imposing similarly expansive requirements.

The Trump EPA has finalized its Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, a narrow policy intended to address greenhouse gases from existing power plants, while also formally repealing the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP) in the agency’s first high-profile climate rule rollback to be completed.

State air regulators are warning that EPA’s imminent Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) power plant greenhouse gas rule will, if finalized as proposed, leave them vulnerable to suits from regulated utilities, their competitors and environmentalists because it does not set an GHG reduction target against which their plans would be assessed.