The Supreme Court has declined to stop a pair of EPA rules that curb neurotoxins and carcinogens from power plants and methane emissions from oil and gas facilities.
In an order issued Friday, the justices rejected requests from Republican-led states and industry groups that had argued that the benefits did not justify the cost of EPA’s mercury and air toxics, or MATS, rule and that the regulation should be put on hold as legal challenges against it work their way through a lower court.
The order came through the Supreme Court’s emergency — or “shadow” — docket, which the justices use to decide procedural matters. In recent years, the court has used the docket to stop high-profile federal rules, often without detailed briefing, oral arguments or full opinions.
Opponents of the MATS rule had argued that the regulation threatened the nation’s power supply and exceeded EPA’s regulatory authority.
