US Supreme Court Won't Hear Power Plant Case
February 23 2009 - 10:54AM
Dow Jones News
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a bid by a group of
utility companies and industry trade groups to save certain Bush
administration regulations on power plants.
The high court's move was not a surprise because the Obama
administration recently abandoned the federal government's Supreme
Court appeal in the same case. Lawyers for the new administration
instead said the Environmental Protection Agency would abide by a
lower court ruling that threw out a Bush-era EPA rule that sought
to "delist" mercury from a list of pollutants the agency is
required to control at each power plant.
The Bush administration plan sought to create an emissions
trading market under which power plants, starting in 2010, would
have to buy pollution credits instead of actually cutting mercury
emissions.
Coal-burning utilities such as American Electric Power Co.
(AEP), Southern Co. (SO), and Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) had lobbied
for the plan so they would have the flexibility to decide how to
produce the cheapest mercury reductions. To create the market, the
EPA had to reverse a Clinton administration finding that mercury
pollution from coal-burning power plants is a "hazardous air
pollutant" under the Clean Air Act.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of the Columbia
Circuit threw out the Bush administration's plan in February,
2008.
The Supreme Court on Monday let that ruling stand without
comment.
The case is Utility Air Regulatory Group v. New Jersey,
08-352.
-By Brent Kendall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9222;
brent.kendall@dowjones.com
(Siobhan Hughes contributed to this story.)