Shook Contributes to SCOTUS Clean Air Act Ruling

Voting 5-4, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the EPA did not interpret the Clean Air Act properly in setting limits on power plant emissions of mercury without considering the costs of doing so. Shook's involvement in the ruling was featured in the Kansas City Business Journal.

Shook, Hardy & Bacon Partners Tristan Duncan and Tom Grever are lead appellate counsel for Peabody Energy Corporation. Peabody Energy, the nation’s largest coal company, also retained Harvard Law School Professor and constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe. 

On behalf of Peabody Energy, Duncan, Grever and Tribe submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of the parties challenging EPA’s mercury rule. The Court’s majority decision adopts one of the arguments posed by Shook and Tribe that was not made by any other participant in the opposition group.

In total, 23 states and several organizations and companies joined together to oppose the regulations for power plant emissions of mercury.

Duncan, Grever and Tribe also are representing Peabody Energy in challenges to EPA’s plans to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. In December 2014, Duncan, Grever and Tribe prepared and submitted comments on the proposed Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources on behalf of Peabody Energy to the EPA. Duncan, Grever and Tribe also have filed briefing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging the proposed regulations.