Federal judges appear to be siding with EPA in a lawsuit over deadlines for state plans to rein in air pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions.
EPA needs to “have a process to control these harmful emissions and do it in a way that is orderly,” Judge Cornelia Pillard said Friday during oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
At issue is a 2023 rule that sets an 18-month deadline for submission of state plans needed to meet emission guidelines under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. That part of the act governs performance standards for power plants and other existing industrial pollution sources; in recent years, it has helped to undergird regulation of greenhouse gases, along with conventional air pollutants.
In the suit filed last year, West Virginia and some two dozen other Republican-run states contend that the timeframe is arbitrary and capricious and should thus be thrown out.
