Bloomberg's Barnes: Obama's Clean Power Plan Could Stay (Audio)

afternoon call, and here's Bill Maloney. Good afternoon, Charlie. Manus averages have been strong after a quiet start, with the DAL currently hired by a hundred and twenty three points, says that he's gains thirteen and NAZAC rises forty four. The down traded back above the hundred day moving average, the small cap six hundreds up a point, and the U S ten yield at one point five six percent.

Eight out of eleven sp sectors are higher, led by games, in technology, consumed, discretionary, and the financials, while utilities, energy and real estate fell down, Transports rise seventy one, hilities fall seven, Nazi Botech jump twenty one, and the VIX is lower by ten percent. Leaders to the upside of the down including Microsoft, Nike, and IBM. Only Disney fell. Nike reports after the bell estimates are for fifty six cents on revenues of eight point eight seven billion live

in the first Bacon News asked on Bill Maloney. Alrighty, thank you very much. Bill Maloney will be all over Nike as we get those numbers again. The Dow the Smpton has stack all advancing and to hear live breaking news over your Bloomberg Times squawk s q U A w K on your terminal. I'm Charlie Pellock. That's a Bloomberg business flash. You're listening to taking stock with Kathleen Hays and Pim Box on Bloomberg Radio. The Clean Power Plan it's facing its first legal test. This is President

Obama's climate legacy. It's the cornerstone of the carbon cutting promise the United States made to the world in Paris last December as part of a pack among more than one hundred eighty nations, and meeting those targets without the initiative will be difficult, though impossible bringing in now. Brandon Barnes are senior litigation analysts for Energy Bloomberg Intelligence, based in Washington, d C to talk about the Clean Power Plan arguments from both sides of this debate before the

d C Circuit. Brandon, welcome, Thanks, So what is on the dock at what is being argued today? So today was unprecedented in terms of the scope of the argument. You had two d eighteen minutes of scheduled argument, which is a far far greater amount than normal for the d C Circuit. This was sixteen different attorneys arguing in front of ten judges. Uh. And they broke the argument

down into five different categories. First being generally statutory issues, which is typically how you would approach a challenge to n e p A rule than a very specific statutory issue related to Cleaner Act Section one twelve Constitutional shoes um segment. And then two other more procedural issues. Can

you outline who is and what is going on? Because I thought that the CPP ended a place in the Environmental Protection Agency, the e p A in one corner, and then there are what like you know, twenty seven states plus industry groups plus utilities, coal miners, labor unions, and they were all in another corner and the judges are somehow in the middle. Well, I think that's how that's certainly how the judges probably felt today with that

much argument and that many attorneys in the room. Um, So you've got EPA on one side, but they've got their own kind of cadre of support behind them. They've got eighteen states supporting them, filing briefs, They've got counties, cities, mayors. UM. Companies like Apple for example, is exactly companies tell us a little bit in detail, like who's on each on

what are they fighting over? Sure? So I think if you look at it from a company perspective, on the side of the Clean Power Plan and the side of the e p A are going to be your wind and solar groups, the ones who would benefit most from this. Um. That's typically how these lawsuits work, right. And so on the other side, you've got utilities, especially the ones who are coal fired, because they're really going to be put out of existence not only because of this, but I

mean the market has driven them so far down. So between this and other regulations, UM, coal firepower just isn't gonna have the same kind of place in the US power mix that I had before. So everyone who would support coal, the producers, those who work in the industry, including the unions are definitely backing would be back in

the opponents. It just I just with this, this is even this is is this is intense or more intense than the Supreme Court kind of setting when you talk about but how many lawyers intend just it's it's a big, big undertaking. It's it's unpressed, as I said, unprecedented, And I'll tell you for a couple of reasons, but one really important one is Supreme Court has already sort of seen a little bit of this picture. They've they've decided something related to the Clean Power Plan already, and that

was back when Justice Scalia was still alive. So the Clean Power Plan was stayed by the Supreme Court five to four. If we assume Scalia's being that five that fitth deciding vote for the conservative side of the of the Court then were at four four, which means that if if there's a split, the d C Circuit's opinion will stay as is and and remain sort of the the controlling opinion. So that puts a lot of emphasis

on what happens in the d C Circuit. And for that reason, the d C Circuit said, well, look, we're not going to just decide this on our normal three judge panel. We're gonna take the entire panel of all the judges that are on the court, uh less Merrick Garland who recused himself, and and they're going to hear the entire case. And they did it on their own on which they've only done two other times. So you say two hundred and eighteen minutes today? Right? Yes, sir? Uh?

What happens next? Give us the timeline? What can we expect and how do we keep following this important case? So hard to say exactly on the timeline because of how the DC Circuit has done this by skipping one of the segments that they normally do. But if we assume that this is a regular case, the d C Circuit typically does this in thirteen months or so. This case was filed back in October of last year, so we could see some sort of opinion coming out from

UM the court in mid December. Uh go from there, there's the obvious appeal up to the Supreme Court that's almost guaranteed at this point. UM. That would take you through that process into potentially early until we have a final decision. If you had to bet, how would you bet this comes out? Well, I think right now, based on what we saw in the argument today and how the judges sort of split on ideological lines, the clean

power plant is looking pretty good. So if we assume that that holds and then we go to a four force split in the Screme Court, looks like the clean power Plant could could stay relevant and stay in effect moving forward. I want to thank you very much. Brandon Barnes, Senior Litigation analyst for Energy for Bloomberg Intelligence, joining us from Washington, d C. Home to Bloomberg one and one oh five point seven h D two. You're listening to taking Stock. I'm Pim Fox, my co host Captain Hayes.

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