Paul Gutermann Quoted in Law360 Article on Supreme Court Decisions Affecting Clean Power Plan

Paul Gutermann, a partner in Akin Gump’s environment and natural resources practice, was quoted in the Law360 article “5 Decisions That Paved The Way For The Clean Power Plan,” which examines several cases that have set the stage for the fight over President Obama’s signature climate change rule.

One of the decisions, according to the article, centers on the Supreme Court’s 2014 ruling in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, which said that the Environmental Protection Agency flouted the Clean Air Act (CAA) when it expanded two permitting programs to include carbon dioxide emissions. The opinion was written by the late Justice Antonin Scalia who said, as the article reports, that the EPA was attempting to rewrite the language of the CAA.

As the article notes, the Supreme Court is likely to be the ultimate arbiter of the Clean Power Plan’s legality, but a 4-4 split would leave any decision by the D.C. Circuit intact. “The [UARG] decision,” Gutermann said, “is still precedent, but that creates some uncertainty as to whether you can get a majority of the D.C. Circuit to follow along with that ruling.”