U.S. SC to hear challenge to EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) -- The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to
hear a challenge to the Obama administration’s greenhouse gas
regulations.

According to a 15-page order list released Tuesday, the nation’s high
court granted Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s petition for writ
of certiorari.

In April, Abbott and the attorneys general of 11 other states asked
the court to review the legality of the administration’s greenhouse
gas environmental regulatory scheme.

In its petition, the states argued that the federal Environmental
Protection Agency violated the U.S. Constitution as well as the
federal Clean Air Act by “concocting” its greenhouse gas regulations
without Congressional authorization.

The states contend that the EPA ignored Congress’ law-making role by
rewriting federal laws through administrative rule-making.

The states want the Supreme Court to overturn the administration’s
“attempts to unilaterally implement policies in the absence of
congressionally delegated authority” and to “rein in a usurpatious
agency and remind the President and his subordinates that they cannot
rule by executive decree.”

“The EPA’s illegal regulations threaten Texas jobs and Texas
employers,” Abbott said in a statement Tuesday.

“As Texas has proven in other lawsuits against the EPA, this is a
runaway federal agency, so we are pleased the Obama administration
will have to defend its lawless regulations before the U.S. Supreme
Court.”

The other 11 states include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana,
Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina
and South Dakota. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
also is a petitioner.

The Supreme Court granted the petitions for writs of certiorari in
five other, related cases: Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA;
American Chemistry Council, et al. v. EPA, et al.; Energy-Intensive
Manufacturers v. EPA, et al.; Southeastern Legal Foundation v. EPA, et
al.; and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, et al. v. EPA, et al.

The court granted the petitions limited to the following question:

“Whether EPA permissibly determined that its regulation of greenhouse
gas emissions from new motor vehicles triggered permitting
requirements under the Clean Air Act for stationary sources that emit
greenhouse gases.”

The court has consolidated the cases, and a total of one hour is
allotted for oral argument.

“Manufacturers are pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision to review
the EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations from stationary sources -- one of
the most costly, complex and harmful regulatory issues facing
manufacturers and threatening our global competitiveness,” National
Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons said in a
statement Tuesday.

“Without congressional engagement or approval, and through a severely
flawed interpretation of the Clean Air Act, the EPA has invented an
unauthorized regulatory universe that the agency itself admits leads
to ‘absurd results.’

“These regulations will be felt not only by the nation’s energy
providers and manufacturers, but they also threaten to impose new
stringent permitting requirements for millions of stationary sources,
which will impact every aspect of our economy.”

From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by email at
jessica@legalnewsline.com.