On June 30, the Supreme Court issued a final decision on West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The SCOTUS ruling constrains the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
Solar advocates reacted with unanimous disdain.
“While many top corporations are stepping up and taking ownership of their carbon emissions, the reality is not everyone is moving in the same direction, and we’re running out of time to take meaningful action on climate change,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO at the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), in a statement. “Climate change is having a real and immediate impact on our economy and way of life, and brown and black communities are continuing to bear the brunt of decades of government inaction on carbon-polluting businesses.”
Hopper said this move will add unnecessary barriers that will slow clean energy deployment and make it harder to reach decarbonization goals. She and SEIA are calling on Congress to take action to codify policies to take the place of the former regulations.
Vote Solar also slammed the decision.
“It’s difficult to overstate the far-reaching and catastrophic impacts that today’s ruling may have on our collective efforts to reduce polluting emissions and mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. It is also, quite simply, a matter of life and death,” said Sachu Constantine, executive director of Vote Solar, in a statement. “The Clean Air Act — the landmark 1970 legislation that initially granted the EPA its regulatory authority — prevented 230,000 early deaths in 2020. Low-wealth communities and communities of color have already borne the brunt of air pollution and environmental injustice for generations; there is no question that the ruling will impact these same communities first and hardest. The Court has created a preventable, ongoing tragedy that will disproportionately harm low-income communities and families, while stripping our ability as a nation to halt the climate crisis.”
Constantine said although this decision is wrong, it only reaffirms the organization’s strategy of prioritizing state-level advocacy for climate protections and solar advancement.
Edited at 12:45 p.m. ET to reflect that the ruling did not do away with EPA’s ability to regulate GHG altogether.
The electric power industry knows full well the O&M costs of decommissioning fueled generation and constructing solar PV, wind generation and distributed ESS facilities along the grid.
In 2019 NGS coal plant in Northern Arizona was decommissioned about 6 to 8 years before it was planned. The NGS plant had 500 full time employees for 24 hour operations. I have heard no more but a proposed (very large) solar PV farm has been proposed in the same area and something like a build out of 2GWp with energy storage might take a workforce of a little less than 100 employees to keep the plant providing power for 24 hours each day. No emissions to meet, lower cost O&M and assets that don’t wear out from mechanical operation. With solar PV a 30 year plant can well mean the same components online for 30 years of service.
The fact of the matter is that climate change is not a state-by-state issue. Catastrophic changes to our climate do not stop at any border. The solutions to this crisis must be taken on by those institutions that have the resources and will to do so.
Climate Change is too serious to leave these kinds of decisions to chance. If this continues, humankind will suffer the certain consequences.
It sounds to me like SCOTUS is pushing the responsibility down to the States to make decisions as to what a generation plant in a particular State will take on to remediate emissions and decarbonization. This is a new era, less Federal oversight, more State oversight and “if you want it, you pay for it. “