In 2022, the Supreme Court ruling in West Virginia v. EPA sharply limited EPA’s authority to regulate carbon emissions from the electric power sector. Rejecting an approach that the agency took under the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, the Court held that EPA may not take into consideration the availability of renewable energy resources, like wind and solar generators, when determining the carbon pollution reduction targets for existing coal- and gas-burning power plants. The Court’s decision took away one of the federal government’s most effective tools for driving significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the electric power sector.

For this webinar, we’ll be joined by Andres Restrepo, a senior attorney for the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program, who will give an overview of the implications of the decision and what alternatives remain for EPA—as well as state and local governments–to reduce carbon emissions from the electric power sector. Andres Restrepo is a senior attorney with the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program. Since 2013, he has worked for the Club primarily to advance stringent limits on greenhouse gases and other pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants, oil and gas operations, residential and commercial heating appliances, and other sectors of the economy.

Andres was born in Massachusetts and grew up primarily in Colorado, where he developed a deep appreciation for the natural environment. He received a B.A. in English from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was a senior articles editor on the Harvard Law and Policy Review. From 2010 to 2012, he was a Beagle Litigation Fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council, and subsequently clerked for the Honorable Eric N. Vitaliano on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He currently lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two daughters.

Webinar registration link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7101716345978147677