Contact Information:
Louisa Tavlas
Director of Communication
571-527-6403
ltavlas@niskanencenter.org
The Niskanen Center
The Niskanen Center responds to Supreme Court stay of EPA Regulations
Washington, D.C.– February 10, 2016. Tuesday night, the Supreme Court delayed implementation of the EPA’s regulations to limit carbon dioxide emissions from existing sources, known as the Clean Power Plan, until legal challenges are settled by the courts (circa 2018). This stay challenges the credibility of the Obama Administration in international climate talks, but will not change the market conditions leading to changes in the energy sector.
“The EPA has clearly pushed the bounds of the Clean Air Act,” said Niskanen Center president Jerry Taylor. “For those of us who favor market-based solutions over regulation, this could be a victory. But conservatives should not treat this as a sign that they don’t need to engage on climate policy. Rolling back the timeline or the scope of EPA’s regulations won’t help solve the climate problem, save the coal industry, or even necessarily reduce regulatory costs in the long run. The EPA still has the endangerment finding for CO2 and the Court can’t rule on atmospheric physics or market trends.”
In a blog post, Niskanen Center adjunct fellows David Bailey and David Bookbinder examined what the stay means for climate policy in the United States and the Obama Administration’s international climate agreement. “[T]he U.S. was not going to meet its 2025 target under any realistic circumstances, and now its single largest component will certainly be years behind schedule and possibly kaput,” they wrote. “This is not going to do anything good for how other countries view their own obligations.”
The Niskanen Center is a libertarian 501(c)(3) advocacy organization that was established in 2014 that works to change public policy through direct engagement in the policymaking process.
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