Bessie Schwarz

Yesterday, the Supreme Court suspended implementation of the Clean Power Plan, siding with a coalition of states, corporations, and state agencies suing the EPA to stop the program. The Clean Power Plan, which took effect in late 2015, sets strict CO2 limits on coal-fired power plants across the country. The effort to reduce power plant emissions will now be on hold until an appellate court hears the case this summer.

In December 2015, Paris hosted the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Governments, nongovernmental organizations and local communities gathered to take action against climate change and move forward after successive failures in reaching common ground for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The historic COP21 agreement that came out of the Paris meetings will be governing law in just a few weeks, after being ratified earlier this month.