The Environmental Protection Agency is developing new rules to regulate pollution from power plants as a challenge to its authority to do so is pending in the Supreme Court, Administrator Michael Regan said.
The new regulations will target mercury and other toxic pollutants in air and water sources, with the expressed goal of protecting the poor and minorities who live near plants, he said.
“We don’t have to overly rely on any one rule,” Regan told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s looking at the full suite of authorities to maximize our ability to protect communities and public health.”
GREENS ENJOY WINS AND SUFFER DISAPPOINTMENTS IN BIDEN’S FIRST YEAR
Regan’s preview of the new rules comes as lawyers representing the agency and coal interests prepare briefs for a legal challenge to the EPA’s authority to regulate power plant emissions under the Clean Air Act.
West Virginia, North Dakota, Westmoreland Mining Holdings, and North American Coal Corporation are asking the high court to consider whether the Clean Air Act authorizes the EPA to consider the climate impact of the power sector’s carbon emissions and to enforce “outside the fence” emissions regulations.
The case is a direct challenge to the now-defunct Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which the Trump administration withdrew — a decision the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out last January.
The Biden administration argued against the court taking the case, saying it was crafting its own rule and that the “Court’s review therefore should await the completion of EPA’s new rulemaking,” after which any challenge to the new rule “will take a more concrete shape.”
Regan did not specify whether the new rules will be issued with reference to the Clean Air Act authority but that they will go beyond regulating greenhouse gases blamed for accelerating climate change.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“It’s much more than just a carbon strategy,” Regan said. “I’m convinced if we’re going to protect people and communities and the environment and the planet, we have to do all of the above.”
