{"id":16838,"date":"2017-05-16T10:06:20","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T15:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=16838"},"modified":"2017-05-16T10:06:20","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T15:06:20","slug":"edf-coalition-partners-urge-the-d-c-circuit-to-decide-the-clean-power-plan-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2017\/05\/16\/edf-coalition-partners-urge-the-d-c-circuit-to-decide-the-clean-power-plan-case\/","title":{"rendered":"EDF, coalition partners urge the D.C. Circuit to decide the Clean Power Plan case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Environmental Defense Fund and fourteen other public health and environmental organizations filed a brief<\/a> yesterday urging the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to issue a decision on the merits in the litigation over the Clean Power Plan<\/a> \u2013 America\u2019s only nationwide standards limiting harmful carbon pollution from existing fossil fuel power plants.<\/p>\n

Other parties supporting the Clean Power Plan also filed briefs, including 18 states and 7\u00a0municipalities<\/a>, power companies<\/a> representing nearly 10 percent of the nation\u2019s generation, and associations representing America\u2019s vibrant $200 billion clean energy industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The latest filings all respond to a recent D.C. Circuit order<\/a> which temporarily suspended the litigation and directed the parties to submit briefs on whether to continue the suspension (known as an \u201cabeyance\u201d) or terminate the case and hand the matter back to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for further review (known as \u201cremand\u201d).<\/p>\n

This order addressed a motion filed by the Trump Administration on March 28, which asked the court to suspend the Clean Power Plan litigation indefinitely and refrain from deciding the legal merits of the Clean Power Plan.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what\u2019s at stake at this critical juncture in the Clean Power Plan litigation \u2013 and a few things we can count on regardless of how the court rules on yesterday\u2019s filings.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Real World Consequences for Healthier Air and a Safer Climate<\/strong><\/p>\n

The briefs have vital real-world consequences for everyone who cares about healthier air and a safer climate.<\/p>\n

As legal experts have noted<\/a>, the Administration\u2019s move is a brazen, eleventh-hour attempt to prevent the D.C. Circuit from issuing a timely opinion on legal issues that are central to EPA\u2019s responsibility under the Clean Air Act to protect the public against climate pollution. The Administration filed its March 28 motion almost a year after the parties submitted briefs in the case, and six months after ten judges of the D.C. Circuit held an exhaustive seven hour-long oral argument.<\/p>\n

Because the Supreme Court voted 5-to-4 to temporarily block the enforcement of the Clean Power Plan while the courts reviewed the legal challenges, the Administration\u2019s motion would also indefinitely delay the enforcement<\/a> of these urgently needed and long-overdue limits on carbon pollution.<\/p>\n

The Administration\u2019s motion asked the court for an indefinite pause in the litigation while EPA undertakes the long process of reviewing \u2013 and likely rescinding or weakening \u2013 the Clean Power Plan. However, if the court declines to decide the central legal questions in this case now, the same issues would likely have to be re-litigated again after EPA has completed its review. This would add years of unnecessary delay at a time when the urgency of action to mitigate climate pollution has never been greater.<\/p>\n

Americans have been waiting for protection from climate pollution from power plants for almost twenty years \u2014 with no relief:<\/p>\n