Law360 (September 17, 2019, 4:06 PM EDT)--The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday tossed legal challenges to the Obama administration's signature climate change plan, accepting theU.S. Environmental Protection Agency's argument that because it has replaced the regulations, the litigation is moot.
In a brief, anticlimactic order with no explanation, the court granted motions by the EPA and several groups to dismiss the high-profile litigation over the Clean Power Plan, which aimed to slash carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.
Several states, including Texas and West Virginia, and a variety of industry groups had challenged the CPP as a regulatory overreach. Other states, including California and New York, and environmental groups had intervened on behalf of the EPA to protect the rule.
The legal battle prompted rare intervention from theU.S. Supreme Court, which in 2016 —in one of the late Justice Antonin Scalia's last acts —stayed implementation of the rule. Following the stay, the D.C. Circuit took the unusual move of holding en banc oral arguments in lieu of panel review. Now, whether the judges would have upheld or struck down the CPP will likely never be known.