Trump gets a win in Clean Power Plan battle

Court’s decision to defer ruling on suit could make repeal easier

WASHINGTON — A federal court said Friday it would halt consideration of a major lawsuit over former President Barack Obama’s signature policy aimed at tackling global warming, handing the Trump administration a modest and perhaps temporary victory.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted a request from the Trump administration to defer for 60 days a decision on litigation over a contested 2015 Environmental Protection Agency regulation, known as the Clean Power Plan. The rule, aimed at shutting down heavily polluting coal-fired power plants and replacing them with renewable energy sources, was the centerpiece of Obama’s efforts to enact a series of ambitious regulations to reduce the United States’ contributions to global warming.

Twenty-eight states and several major industry groups had sued the Obama administration seeking to overturn the rule, arguing that it was unduly burdensome to utilities and too costly for consumers.

The regulation was a major target for President Donald Trump, who called it “stupid” and a “job killer” on the campaign trail and has begun taking steps to repeal it. In an executive order last month, Trump directed his EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, to begin the lengthy legal process of dismantling it, and at the same time requested that the court put the lawsuit on hold while the agency came up with a new plan.

Had the court rejected Trump’s request and upheld the Clean Power Plan, it would have made it far more difficult for Pruitt to roll back the rule.

The legal hold will have little practical impact, however, on the nation’s energy economy and coal industry. The climate change rule has never been formally put in place, after the Supreme Court last year said that states did not have to comply until all litigation had been resolved.