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WASHINGTON — In the most important environmental case in more than a decade, the Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday over a dispute that could limit or even eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to control pollution that’s warming the planet.

A decision by the mostly conservative supreme court could smash President Biden’s plans to halve the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade, which scientists say is necessary to avert the worst effects of climate change.

“They could clamp down on the federal government’s ability to economically reduce greenhouse gases from power plants,” said Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international relations at Princeton University. The energy sector is the second largest source of climate-changing carbon emissions in the United States.

But the result could have repercussions that extend far beyond air pollution and limit federal agencies’ ability to regulate health care, workplace safety, telecommunications, the financial sector, and more.

“If the court demands that the EPA have a very specific, narrow direction for addressing greenhouse gases, as a practical matter, it could be devastating to other agencies’ ability to enact rules that protect public health and the welfare of the nation,” he said. Richard Lazarus, professor of environmental law at Harvard. “This will restrict the enactment of regulations under any federal statute, such as OSHA, the Clean Water Act, the hazardous waste regulation. In theory, it could even limit the Fed’s authority to set interest rates.”

At issue is a federal regulation that largely governs emissions from power plants. But with an interesting change, the regulation never actually took effect and is not currently available.

The legal battles began in 2015 when President Barack Obama announced the Clean Energy Plan, his primary strategy for tackling climate change. Citing its mandate under the Clean Air Act, the Obama administration planned to require each state to lower its carbon dioxide emissions from its power sector—primarily by replacing coal-fired power plants with wind, solar, and other clean sources. Electricity generation is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States after transportation.

But the Clean Power Plan was never implemented. After a string of lawsuits from Republican states and the coal industry, the Supreme Court suspended the program. When President Donald J. Trump took office, he launched a new plan. was effectively the same because there is no regulation. But on the last full day of Mr Trump’s presidency, a federal appeals court “We got the law wrong” and Trump foiled his plan. This paved the way for the Biden administration to publish its own regulation, which it has yet to do.

Legal experts said it was highly unusual for the Supreme Court to handle a case revolving around a hypothetical future arrangement.

“Trying to understand the limits of the EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gases in the absence of advocacy regulation is a bit of a strange thing for the court to consider,” said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University. “I was surprised when they took the case.”

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, against the West Virginia Environmental Protection Agency, want the supreme court to block sweeping changes to the electricity sector that defined the Obama Clean Energy Plan.

Instead, Republican attorneys general in 18 states and some of the nation’s largest coal companies will argue that the Clean Air Act of 1970 limited the EPA to dictate changes only to individual power plants, not the entire power sector.

Conservatives have long argued that the executive branch routinely exceeds the mandate given by the Constitution to regulate any economic activity.

“This is really about the fundamental question of who decides the important issues of the day,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said at an event in Washington earlier this month, before appearing before the Supreme Court on Monday. . “Should it be unelected bureaucrats or representatives of the people in Congress? This case is about that. It is very simple.”

Others argue that Congress has delegated broad regulation of air pollution under the Clean Air Act to the executive branch. The legislature makes the law; executes through regulation, they say.

“The fact that opponents are particularly sharp in their objections doesn’t change the fact that this regulation is no different from the hundreds of regulations that agencies have produced since the New Deal – just as Congress intended to do,” said Richard Revesz. Giving a lecture on environmental law at New York University and a briefing to support management, Dr.

While the stakes were high, both sides received legal support from a slew of supporters. Importantly, many of the nation’s largest electricity utilities – companies that will be subject to environmental regulation – have given legal briefings to support the government. Joining them is 192 Congressmen, the US Conference of Mayors, climate and public health advocates, and tech giants like Apple, Google and Netflix.

Behind the plaintiffs are some of the nation’s most powerful conservative groups, including 91 members of Congress and the Americans Foundation for Welfare. libertarian Koch family and their billions.

Mr Morrissey suggested he was encouraged by the 6-3 split in court between conservatives and liberals, including the Trump-appointed trio. “We are optimistic about the outcome we will get,” he said.

Biden administration officials and environmentalists alike, given both the court’s structure and recent rulings against federal rules, for example blocking a federal vaccine mandate and the end of Mr. Biden eviction moratoriumMr. Morrissey’s optimism is probably well-founded.

“This is a court that is absolutely unfriendly to the actions of the government,” said David Doniger, attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “But there are some reasons why we have a fighting chance.”

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to discuss the case prior to oral arguments. However, in his brief to the court, the Biden administration urged the court to dismiss the case, noting that the plaintiffs “do not currently have any tangible harm done by the absence of any federal greenhouse gas regulation.”

This argument may resonate with Judge Brent Kavanaugh, one of the conservatives on the court. First time I’ve heard of West Virginia While he was a federal appeals judge in 2015, Obama filed a lawsuit against the power station ordinance.

This court of appeal dismissed the case as the rule was only in draft form and was not yet final. At the time, Mr. Kavanaugh told West Virginia lawyers: “It seems extremely unusual that we got into the middle of it before this happened.”

The Biden administration will participate in oral discussions with some of the country’s largest private and public energy companies, which support broad regulation of greenhouse pollution.

Energy companies said they preferred the kind of flexibility offered under Obama’s plan that would allow them to lower emissions by making changes to the electrical grid – by shutting down some plants, making others more efficient, and expanding wind and solar. Plaintiffs do not want to have to make too predetermined changes to individual power plants, which plaintiffs claim is the only type management can enforce, because they say it will increase costs.

“The regulated industry itself says they’re not fighting against the EPA’s authority,” said Jody Freeman, a Harvard attorney and former climate official in the Obama White House. “The court will, I think, pay attention to what the industry has to say,” he said, noting that the Biden administration blocked the Supreme Court’s mandate, except in the healthcare situation, in a recent case regarding Covid vaccine authorization for large employers. Workers requesting the regulation.

And it was Judge Kavanaugh who made the point, and in the arguments about the vaccination order, “the people who are regulated are not complaining about the regulation here.”

Lawyers for the Environmental Protection Agency will be listening closely, as they are expected to propose power plant climate regulation as soon as next month.

The Supreme Court is hearing the case on the same day that scientists convened by the United Nations plan to release a report, the most comprehensive look ever at the dire threats posed by global warming to human civilization.

While the effects of climate change are already being felt in the form of devastating floods, wildfires, droughts and rising seas that killed people and cost billions in losses in the United States last year alone, Mr. Biden has aggressively committed to: cut greenhouse gases. United States of America the country that historically pumps the most planet warming pollution to the atmosphere.

But Mr. Biden’s climate law has been stalled on Capitol Hill and could collapse if Republicans take control of one or both houses of Congress in the midterm elections this fall.

This placed greater emphasis on the power, authority and reach of regulations. After the EPA introduced power plant regulations later this year, it plans to announce tough new limits on automobile pollution next year, aimed at accelerating the transition from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric vehicles.

And so the plaintiffs argue that while the details of the upcoming rules are not yet known, their case is not premature.

“The threat is very real,” said West Virginia Attorney General Mr. Morrissey. “It’s just a matter of time now.”

Legal experts on both sides said they saw it as the first of many lawsuits to appeal to the growing authority of federal agencies at a time when a stalled Congress was unable to pass new laws on issues ranging from climate change to immigration to gun control.

“Congress gets fancy badges and pretty offices because they have to legislate but they don’t,” said Mr. Adler, a professor at Case Western Reserve University. “There has been a long trend where the executive branch is trying to fill the void left by the failure of Congress to act, and each administration is getting more aggressive than the last on this issue. And there’s the bigger question of whether the courts will be up to it. ”