WASHINGTON, June 30, 2022 – Today, national business association Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) expressed disappointment with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency. AEE General Counsel and Managing Director Jeff Dennis released the following statement:
“Today’s ruling limits the tools available to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to sensibly reduce power plant emissions using strategies that reflect the realities of an electric power system that is increasingly dynamic and diverse. Limiting EPA’s ability to consider the use of a wide variety of cost-effective technologies to reduce pollution from power plants demonstrates an antiquated view of the electric power system and ignores the vast array of low- and zero-emission advanced energy technologies available today to power and manage energy use in homes and businesses across America.
“The systems we rely on for electricity are dynamic and changing faster than ever, and our options for cost-effectively generating and distributing clean electricity to power homes, businesses, and transportation have grown far beyond sole reliance on fossil-fuel power plants. It’s wind and solar power; it’s battery storage, grid-scale, distributed, and in electric vehicles; it’s energy efficiency and demand management. These technologies provide more cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the electric power sector when compared to retrofitting old fossil fuel technologies. This Supreme Court decision denies EPA authority to take common sense steps to use these cost-effective technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants from the power sector in line with the intent of Congress in the Clean Air Act.
“In light of this Supreme Court decision, it will fall to Congress, state policymakers, and the markets to drive the transition to a clean energy economy.”
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