The US Is Ditching Coal. The Supreme Court Ruling Won’t Change That

Jeff Holmstead told The Washington Post that when he joined Bracewell in late 2006, the firm represented the whole range of electric power companies, including coal-fired utilities and coal mining firms, but that is changing.

Chief executives of electric utilities, wary of the perils of climate change, are marching away from coal.

“Over time it’s clear for reasons largely unrelated to regulations that the U.S. power sector is moving away from coal,” Holmstead said. “In my world it is astonishing.”

That shift in the outlook among top electric utility executives could mute the impact of the recent West Virginia v. EPA Supreme Court decision declaring that the Environmental Protection Agency had overstepped the authority Congress gave it to limit carbon dioxide emissions at power plants.

Click here to read more from The Washington Post.