Judges probe legality of Obama’s climate rule

[Geee]

The Hill:

Federal judges Tuesday appeared highly skeptical of both sides as they considered a challenge by states and companies against the Obama administration's climate rule for power plants.

 

The judges on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit largely split along the party lines of the presidents who appointed them in their questioning of lawyers supporting and opposing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan, the main pillar of President Obama’s second-term climate agenda.

 

While the oral arguments Tuesday did not reveal consensus over the legality of the regulation, it exposed the cenrtal issues that interest the judges in deciding how to rule.

The judges focused their questions largely on a handful of questions related to how the regulation fits under the Clean Air Act: whether the rule is so “transformative” that it cannot be allowed, whether Congress needs to have given the EPA a “clear statement” for it to enforce its rule, and how the court should apply different legislative amendments that the House and Senate passed in 1990.

While a majority of the judges who engaged with the lawyers seemed at least somewhat supportive of the EPA’s position, they nonetheless asked tough questions of all sides represented.