The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to be sued for the carbon emission rules for existing power plants it is scheduled to roll out in early June, but who the plaintiff will be depends on whether the agency uses a broad scope of what it can regulate on the electric grid through one section of the Clean Air Act.
At issue is whether the EPA can take an “outside the fenceline” approach to regulating power plant emissions, a term that refers to imposing rules on the electric power sector that go beyond the smokestack. That could mean requiring that the users of electricity do it less — a position the electric utility industry says would be difficult — by installing “smart” devices, adding more renewable electricity or making improvements to transmission lines to curb “load loss” when power travels from generators to utilities.
