Power lines lead into the coal-fired Intermountain Power Plant on March 28, 2016 outside Delta, Utah. The IPP generates more then 13 million megawatt hours of coal-fired energy each year to Utah and Southern California. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)
After the Supreme Court temporarily halted an Environmental Protection Agency rule that would regulate air pollutants across state lines, Utah environmentalists warn of the effects such a block could have on both the environment and on Utahns’ health.
Under the 2015 EPA policy, also known as the “Good Neighbor” plan, states had to design their air quality plans considering how air currents could transfer air pollution from factories and power plants across state borders. The Supreme Court sided with Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia in challenging the rule. Utah had won its own legal challenge to the rule in a separate case in 2023, in which a court paused the rule in the state.
Thursday’s 5-4 decision said that the EPA had failed to adequately explain why it needed to regulate the pollution so tightly. The justices said industry groups and the 12 states that sued to block the rule entirely were likely to prevail in court, so the Supreme Court agreed to pause the rule while the challenges work their way through lower courts.