In April 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized emissions standards for greenhouse gases from power plants under Clean Air Act, Section 111(d). The rule sets pollution limits for existing coal plants and some new gas plants based on carbon capture and sequestration. In West Virginia v. EPA, some states and industry parties have challenged these new standards. 

This brief is on behalf of leading grid engineers and analysts Ric O’Connell, Brendan Pierpont, Benjamin F. Hobbs, Jesse Jenkins, Brendan Kirby, Kenneth J. Lutz, Michael Milligan, Michael O’Boyle, and Matthew Schuerger – each of whom brings a wealth of expertise in grid reliability to bear. These are experts in the operation, structure, economics, regulation, and reliability of the U.S. power system.

Denise Grab, Project Director of the Emmett Clean Energy Law and Leadership project, along with Ruthie Lazenby, Shapiro Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy, submitted the brief on behalf of these experts through UCLA School of Law’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic.

The brief aims to aid the Court’s understanding of the highly technical matters at issue as well as how and why the grids are designed as they are and how they are being impacted by the energy transition. The brief also makes clear how the incentive to shift toward a more modern grid has the potential to alleviate, rather than exacerbate, reliability issues.

Read the brief.