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Supreme Court to review greenhouse gas limits

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If upheld, new EPA regulations could have a profound impact on the Houston Ship Channel's oil refineries and chemical plants.
If upheld, new EPA regulations could have a profound impact on the Houston Ship Channel's oil refineries and chemical plants.Smiley N. Pool/Staff

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear Texas' challenge to federal efforts to extend limits on greenhouse gas emissions to stationary sources of pollution, such as power plants and oil refineries.

The justices said they will review a lower court's unanimous ruling that upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt at regulating carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming.

But they narrowed the review to the question of whether the federal government can restrict greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources, a key piece of President Barack Obama's ambitious efforts to fight climate change.

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The agency can already limit gases from cars and trucks. New limits could have a profound impact in Texas, which releases more carbon dioxide into the air than any other state.

Texas officials and industry groups praised the court's willingness to hear the case, which is the follow-up to its 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA that allowed the agency to regulate heat-trapping emissions from vehicle tailpipes if it found they endangered public health or welfare.

"This is a runaway federal agency, so we are pleased the Obama administration will have to defend its lawless regulations before the U.S. Supreme Court," said Greg Abbott, Texas attorney general and a Republican candidate for governor.

Industry still hopeful

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But Abbott did not get everything he wanted from the high court. The justices declined to review three of the nine petitions related to greenhouse gases before them.

Among the petitions they refused to hear was Texas' challenge of an appellate court's decision in favor of the EPA's finding that heat-trapping emissions pose a public threat. The justices also rejected the state's request to overturn their decision in Massachusetts v. EPA.

As is the court's custom, no reasons were given for turning down the appeals.

"That's a huge win for anybody who cares about clean air and combating climate change," said David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group in New York. "It means the EPA's endangerment finding and vehicle standards are now settled law."

But the question before the court is whether the endangerment finding that led to the EPA's limits for climate-altering gases from vehicles also triggers similar restrictions on power plants, oil refiners and other large facilities.

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Doniger said he is confident the justices will find that it does after the case is argued early next year.

Industry groups sounded hopeful that the justices would limit how far the EPA can go with its greenhouse gas rules.

The court's review indicates "there is real substance behind the notion that EPA may have stretched its legal authority to the breaking point in order to address carbon issues beyond what was intended under the Clean Air Act," said Scott Segal, a lawyer at Bracewell & Giuliani who represents the industry-backed Electric Reliability Coordinating Council.

The court announced the review less than a month after the Obama administration proposed the first-ever rules to limit carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants. The rules effectively require future coal plants to capture and store some of their emissions. But industry has said the emerging technology is extraordinarily expensive, making the regulatory bar too difficult to clear.

The agency also plans to issue similar rules for existing power plants next year.

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12 states joined Texas

The petition filed by Texas seeking the Supreme Court's review was joined by industry groups and 12 states, including some of the nation's top energy producers, such as Louisiana, Oklahoma and North Dakota. In the brief, the states described the EPA's emissions limits as "absurdly low" for power plants and other industrial sources.

Victor Flatt, professor of environmental law at the University of North Carolina, said the court likely agreed to hear the case because of the unusually high number of states involved.

But even if the court rules in favor of the states, it's unlikely to derail the EPA's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources, he said. That's because the agency is working on new regulations under a section of the Clean Air Act that is not part of the Supreme Court's review.

"I don't think it will have a huge impact in the long run," Flatt said. "If the court reverses it, industry might gain some extra time."

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Matthew Tresaugue

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