EPA’s Power To Regulate North Carolina's Carbon Emissions Curbed

NORTH CAROLINA — The Supreme Court on Thursday limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants.

This court ruling will limit federal officials’ efforts to fight climate change. The court ruled in favor of a few Republican-led states and coal companies. The court ruled that the EPA lacked the authority under the Clean Air Act to shift the nation’s energy production away from coal-powered plants to cleaner alternatives such as wind and solar power. The conservative majority on the court voted 6-3.

In North Carolina, there's a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, which was enacted in 2018.

With the ruling, any future regulations from the agency to limit carbon emissions must be limited to specific power plants and not a general push for utilities to transition to renewable energy sources.

In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts agreed that a shift toward renewable energy “may be a sensible solution” to the climate crisis, but that such a mandate was too large to fall under the scope of the EPA and belonged to Congress or an agency acting within “a clear delegation” from the legislative branch.

Justice Elena Kagan accused the court of appointing itself the decision-maker on climate policy and stripping the EPA of the power granted to it by Congress in a dissenting opinion.

Shortly after taking office, President Joe Biden announced a goal to cut the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions in half from 2005 levels by 2030 as well as transition to a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and a net zero emissions economy by 2050.

Energy production accounted for 25 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, and around 60 percent of the nation’s electricity was produced by burning fossil fuels, according to the EPA.

The legal battle dates back to the Clean Power Plan put forward by then-President Barack Obama’s administration, which would have required states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, mainly through a transition away from coal-powered plants.

That initiative was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2016 by a 5-4 conservative majority. Under then-President Donald Trump, the EPA repealed the Obama-era plan and put in place one in which the federal agency’s role was reduced.

A federal appeals court struck down the Trump-era plan last year, leaving no federal restrictions on carbon pollution from existing power plants. The new Supreme Court ruling prevents regulations similar to the Clean Power Plan from taking effect.

Despite a lack of carbon pollution regulations at the federal level, 24 states and the District of Columbia have adopted reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

North Carolina released its Clean Energy Plan in 2019. The plan outlines strategies to meet the state’s goal to reduce GHG emissions by 40 percent by 2025. The plan recommends policies for decarbonizing the electric power sector, modernizing the electricity grid, ensuring access to clean energy, and increasing energy efficiency. North Carolina released a previous climate action plan in 2008.

Other state-level measures being enacted include climate action plans, which are set or being developed in 33 states, and the adoption of renewable portfolio standards and clean energy standards, which are meant to help states transition to renewable energy sources.

A handful of states have enacted carbon pricing policies, mainly through cap-and-trade programs, which sets a cap on emissions for companies and organizations but allows them to purchase more capacity from companies that didn’t use their allotment.

Reporting and writing from The Associated Press was used in this story.