On Wednesday, October 16, 2024, Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program celebrated a victory with the Supreme Court’s denial of industry attempts to stay the Clean Air Act greenhouse gas standards for existing coal- and new gas-fired plants. This decision followed a series of Supreme Court wins. Also in October, the Court denied emergency stay applications for two other EPA rulemakings that have been top Sierra Club priorities: the mercury and air toxics (MATS) rule for coal-fired power plants, and the methane standards for new and existing oil and gas equipment. In addition, the Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit rejected a stay request for the effluent limitation guidelines rule, which limits water pollution at coal plants. These decisions mean that the EPA will be permitted to implement the regulations in question while legal challenges against them proceed in the lower courts. While they are not final rulings upholding these critical regulations, the three stay denials represent an important victory for the Sierra Club and its advocacy and provide encouraging signs of the rules’ eventual likelihood of success on the merits.
For over a decade, the Sierra Club has been heavily involved in advocating for these rules and their predecessors, drafting extensive legal and technical comments supporting protective standards, meeting with EPA officials to advance our policy goals, publishing strategic communications and organizing materials, and participating in strategic litigation, both in offensive (when we support EPA) and defensive (when we oppose the agency) postures. With respect to the greenhouse gas standards that were the subject of the Court’s most recent decision on October 16, we submitted joint technical and legal comments in coalition with several other environmental groups, with Sierra Club attorneys drafting the majority of the over-100-page document. We also participated in meetings with officials from the Office of Air and Radiation over several years, focusing on topics that, but for our efforts, would likely have gone unaddressed, including the need for tighter standards for new intermediate-load turbines.
Sierra Club is also engaged in the current litigation over the greenhouse gas standards, having submitted two amicus curiae briefs at the D.C. Circuit emphasizing the decades of delay in achieving meaningful federal CO2 standards for power plants and highlighting the urgent need for sharp emission reductions from this sector. One of these briefs was part of a successful effort to defeat a stay motion at the D.C. Circuit, which preceded the petitioners’ failed stay application to the Supreme Court. Going forward, Sierra Club attorneys will continue to work in support of EPA as it defends the rule in court. We will also pursue our legal and campaign work in support of the rule and an anticipated regulation in 2025 covering CO2 emissions from the last remaining set of unregulated sources in this sector: existing gas plants.