On February 9, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court placed a stay on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan (CPP) from that date through the completion of any Supreme Court appeal process. This stay was an unprecedented action in response to a petition by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and 39 electric co-op members.
The stay is unprecedented in that the U.S. Supreme Court has never granted a stay prior to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issuing a decision on the regulation being contested. Even if NRECA and electric co-ops lose at the D.C. Circuit, the CPP is stayed until the Supreme Court decides on the appeal. Thus, a window of final resolution is somewhere between June 2017 and June 2018.
The legal counsel at NRECA believe that granting of a stay in this case greatly increases the chances that the CPP will be tossed out by the courts due to serious questions about its legality. The 5-4 vote was an indication that at least five of the justices have serious concerns about the rule.
Personally, I consider this ruling a small vindication for affordability. The electric cooperatives opposed the rule from the beginning on the basis that the emission targets were simply too costly to achieve, and the EPA had exceeded its authority by ignoring costs.
Justice Antonin Scalia was one of the five votes. His untimely passing does raise questions around whether or not this ruling will ultimately be upheld. When a new justice will be appointed and by which party is, of course, impossible to predict. However, it does bring to light the HIGH importance of participating in the present election process. Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, it is time to get in the game, pay attention, take a stand, and vote.
This ruling is far from a victory for coal plants. There are many existing EPA regulations in place today. As a result of these previous rules and the mere fact that we have an aging fleet of coal plants in Michigan, our state will be losing as much as 5,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation by 2020.
Today, inside our state borders, there are only two generating plants of note under construction. Wolverine Power Cooperative’s natural gas peaking plant in Gaylord and the Holland Board of Public Works’ combined cycle gas plant total just 565 megawatts of new generation. Michigan has a long way to go before 2020.
During a “hot” (to say the least) political season, the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out a lifeline of common sense. Cost to the end user does need to be considered. As someone who has defended affordability for a career, I did take a quiet moment to simply say, “Thank you.”
Once again, please consider making your voice and your vote heard in this election process. As crazy as the system seems, there is no better system in the world. But, it only works if you participate.
Thanks for the information! Keep up the fight against the overreaching departments of the federal government.
I have surveyed many US Congressional energy staffers who advise their Senators and Congressmen on energy issues as well as the Climate Scientist for the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) on certain simple facts about AGW (man made global warming) such as “approximately what the concentration of CO2 is in the atmosphere?” None came close! Senator Levin’s staffer was the worst stating affirmatively that it is “40%” . I advised her that we all died at 20% and that it actually is 0.039%-a trace gas. The NRDC Climate Scientist was honest, after lecturing me for 10 minutes on the horrors of CO2, admitting that she “did not know”. She then got my lecture on green house gases which elicited a few “I never heard that before”. I asked her not believe me but to become a critical thinker and read both sides of the issue and then form an opinion.
Bottom line is that proponents of AGW have not tried to be informed on the subject. I hope that the members of SCOTUS are well informed critical thinkers.
Affordability is not the issue here; the issue is making sure the earth is inhabitable for future generations. And every little move to minimize the adverse effects of power production on the environment is going to add up. We can continue to do everything in our power to ignore the issue (and consequently leave any resolution to our descendants), or we can resolve to become a part of the solution. With that in mind, I fully intend to participate in the election process.
CO2 is not the problem, clouds are!
Have you tried to understand the many, many faceted issues considered and not considered within AGW?
Thank you Tony and thanks also to your counterpart in Wolverine Electric. My only question is, Does this mean that the previously proposed coal plant near Alpena may go forward?
Thanks to all in Cherryland Electric.
No, the re-furbishing of the Marquette coal plant will not take place – at least not by Wolverine. Wolverine was not able to work out a viable deal with WE Energies and thus, terminated the relationship prior to starting the Alpine natural gas plant near Gaylord. WE Energies could do something in Marquette but my guess is that they will just close down the plant at some point. It is a big issue to the residents of the U.P. and certainly bears watching as we move forward with the next administration.
Glad to hear somebody cares about cost, unfortunately four (4) black robes, many politicians, EPA government employees and half of the voting public know nothing about cost, nor do they care. Their ideology , their religion supersedes all common sense.
Thanks for the continued excellent service, Tony & Cherryland.
Perhaps a topic for a future blog post would be to compare the carbon output of the typical coal power plant when President Nixon created the EPA to one of the current era. Admittedly some are afraid of facts (and more motivated by code terms such as “CO2” and “dirty coal”), but they may be useful when attempting to intellectually discuss the diminishing returns pursued by an overzealous government agency.