Judges Skeptical of Challenge to Proposed E.P.A. Rule on Climate Change

[NYTimes] A panel of federal judges appeared inclined on Thursday to dismiss the first legal challenge to President Obama’s most far-reaching regulation to slow climate change.

But in the arguments before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, lawyers for the nation’s two largest coal companies, more than two dozen states and the Environmental Protection Agency offered a preview of what is expected to be a protracted battle over a regulation Mr. Obama hopes to leave as his signature environmental achievement.

At stake is the environmental agency’s proposed rule, issued under the authority of the Clean Air Act, to curb planet-warming carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. The rule, which would require all states to draft plans to restructure their electricity sectors and would push them to transition from coal power to cleaner forms of energy, could ultimately shut down hundreds of coal plants.

The plaintiffs in two cases before the court, Murray Energy Corporation v.E.P.A. and West Virginia v. E.P.A., say that as states prepare to meet the requirements, their moves are already wreaking economic havoc. They also say that once finalized, the rule will not stand up to additional legal challenges.

These plaintiffs — 14 states and the coal companies — contend that the agency lacks the authority to issue the regulation. In a highly unusual move, they have petitioned the court to block it from finalizing the proposed rule.

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