States, energy companies and business groups are preparing to sue the Obama administration over its new climate rule, viewing it as their bet shot at stopping the regulations while President Obama is still in office.
With Congress largely powerless to stop the rule, opponents of Obama’s push say the court system is their only hope at beating back the carbon limits until a new president takes over the Oval Office in 2017.
“That is the most viable pathway by which the rule will be stopped during the Obama administration, because whatever the Congress does, he could veto,” said William Yeatman, a fellow at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Given the high stakes of the fight, the litigants are nearly certain to appeal the case all the way to the Supreme Court.