Supreme Court decision may slow transition to cleaner energy

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

61% : Many states and large companies have commitments to use clean energy in the near future.
57% : The Supreme Court ruling limiting the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants could have far-reaching consequences for the energy sector -- and make it harder for the Biden administration to meet its goal of having the U.S. power grid run on clean energy by 2035.
56% : But the ruling could slow the transition to clean energy in the future because it imposes constraints on what the EPA can do without exceeding its legal authority.
55% : The nation has been gradually transitioning away from coal to cleaner sources of electricity such as natural gas, solar energy and wind, often because they are less expensive.
54% : The ruling will also set a tone in policymaking chambers, making it harder to persuade state lawmakers to craft laws to boost renewables, said Sachu Constantine, executive director of Vote Solar, which advocates for laws favorable to solar energy in state legislatures.
49% : And while the Clean Power Plan never took effect, the nation has been pivoting from coal to cleaner sources such as renewables anyway, often for economic reasons.
46% : "This is less about what's going to happen about power plants than what's going to happen about regulation more broadly," Tierney said.
42% : By a 6-3 vote, with conservatives in the majority, the court said that the Clean Air Act does not give the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that contribute to global warming.
42% : They challenged how far the EPA could go to influence the industry's transition away from coal and to cleaner sources.
40% : "It was sort of a scary prospect that EPA had the authority to close down power plants and build others," said Jeff Holmstead, a partner at Bracewell LLP who served as an assistant EPA administrator in the George W. Bush administration.
40% : Thursday's ruling means the EPA cannot force states to shift away from coal to cleaner sources such as natural gas or renewables and compel coal plants shut down.
37% : Most experts don't think the Supreme Court decision in West Virginia vs. EPA will immediately reverse that trajectory.
36% : That prospect upset several industries, including coal, and some state attorneys general.
28% : The case that the Supreme Court took up, West Virginia vs. EPA, had been filed in response to former President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan.
22% : "Without the threat of EPA or federal regulation of climate, without a recognition that carbon pollution is really, truly harmful, it becomes harder to make that argument," Constantine said.

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