Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts rejected a plea Thursday to block a contentious air pollution rule for power plants, a big victory for the Obama administration.
Roberts’s order came despite his court’s 5-4 decision last year ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulation, known mercury and air toxics standard, is illegal.
Michigan led a group of 20 states last month in asking the court to follow up on its ruling last year and block the regulation’s enforcement.
“Unless this court stays or enjoins operation of the Mercury and Air Toxics rule, this court’s recent decision in Michigan v. EPA will be thwarted,” the states wrote in a Feb. 23 filing with the court.
“A stay or injunction is appropriate because this court has already held that the finding on which the rule rests is unlawful and beyond the EPA’s statutory authority.”
The EPA said no judicial stay is necessary because it is working to fix the problem the court identified by next month, and the states would not suffer harm. “The requested stay would harm the public interest by undermining reliance interests and the public health and environmental benefits associated with the rule,” the government said. “The application lacks merit and should be denied.”
Roberts rejected the request, a day after the EPA’s response brief, rather than allow it to go to the full court which may have led to a 4-4 split following Justice Scalia’s death.
Last June, the court ruled that the EPA should have conducted a cost-benefit analysis not he relation before it decided to start writing ti. The agency did conduct an analysis but the justices said that was not sufficient.
The Supreme Court did not overturn the rule at the time, and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in December the the EPA could keep enforcing it.
Roberts’s order came despite his court’s 5-4 decision last year ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulation, known mercury and air toxics standard, is illegal.
Michigan led a group of 20 states last month in asking the court to follow up on its ruling last year and block the regulation’s enforcement.
“Unless this court stays or enjoins operation of the Mercury and Air Toxics rule, this court’s recent decision in Michigan v. EPA will be thwarted,” the states wrote in a Feb. 23 filing with the court.
“A stay or injunction is appropriate because this court has already held that the finding on which the rule rests is unlawful and beyond the EPA’s statutory authority.”
The EPA said no judicial stay is necessary because it is working to fix the problem the court identified by next month, and the states would not suffer harm. “The requested stay would harm the public interest by undermining reliance interests and the public health and environmental benefits associated with the rule,” the government said. “The application lacks merit and should be denied.”
Roberts rejected the request, a day after the EPA’s response brief, rather than allow it to go to the full court which may have led to a 4-4 split following Justice Scalia’s death.
Last June, the court ruled that the EPA should have conducted a cost-benefit analysis not he relation before it decided to start writing ti. The agency did conduct an analysis but the justices said that was not sufficient.
The Supreme Court did not overturn the rule at the time, and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in December the the EPA could keep enforcing it.