West Virginia v. EPA

Summary

Chief Justice Roberts’s majority opinion held that the state petitioners had standing, that EPA’s stated intention not to enforce the Clean Power Plan did not moot the controversy, and that Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act did not authorize the Plan’s generation-shifting approach. Applying the major questions doctrine, the Court required clear congressional authorization for EPA’s claimed power to restructure national electricity generation and found none. It reversed the D.C. Circuit and remanded without deciding whether all permissible emission-reduction systems must operate at individual sources. Justice Gorsuch, joined by Justice Alito, concurred to explain the doctrine’s constitutional foundations and application. Justice Kagan, joined by Justices Breyer and Sotomayor, dissented, arguing that the statute’s broad language authorized generation shifting and that the majority improperly displaced Congress’s delegation to EPA.