Columbus, OH – On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the Obama Administration overstepped its authority when it imposed vast new regulations under the Clean Power Plan.

“The Buckeye Institute argued that the U.S. EPA’s attempt to impose sweeping rules to regulate virtually any industry in the country was a violation of the major questions doctrine and that such vast power required an explicit designation from Congress,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute and a lawyer on the brief. “The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with The Buckeye Institute’s arguments and has appropriately and sensibly reined in the vast powers of unelected government officials at the U.S. EPA.”

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, “Congress did not grant EPA…the authority to devise emissions caps based on the generation shifting approach the Agency took in the Clean Power Plan.”

“The potentially harmful impact of these sweeping EPA rules on Ohio’s economy was undeniable,” said Jay R. Carson, senior litigator at The Buckeye Institute and counsel of record on Buckeye’s brief. “With more than 350,000 Ohioans directly or indirectly employed in the energy industry, the proposed EPA rules clearly met the ‘vast economic and political significance’ threshold in the high court’s major questions doctrine.”

# # #