Continued on page 3 NEWSServing Soil, Mulch, Compost & Wood Pellet Producers Vol. XVI No. 4 July / August 2022
By Keith BarKer
Today, GVM’s main location is a Class-4 facility [green waste only] which sits on five-acres and includes a 7,200 square foot building. They have two other locations. One is a Class-3 bulk facility in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, where GVM creates soils, blends, and compost, including animal manure compost. Their third facility is their packaging operation, another Class-4 facility, located in Wickliffe, Ohio, where colored mulches are produced, packaged and distributed. Main sources of incoming materials include municipal organics, via contracts with nearby cities and townships, and from local landscapers and homeowners. By far, their largest volume of incoming material is wood waste. “We get a lot of tree waste, from tree removals and pruning work,” Gibney explains. “Second to that would be leaf collection. Most of the municipalities near us offer curbside leaf collection in the fall and we get upwards of 75,000 cubic yards of leavesGVM’sannually.”primary customer base has always been local, with customers in the Cleveland and Northeast Ohio area, mostly within about one hundred miles, with bulk products generally being sold to customers within about a 25-mile radius. He says overall, their retail big box store business is their largest market, with local landscapers being the second, and then residential retail.
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“The big jump for us was in about 2010 when we had an opportunity to buy a packaging plant, and we got into the mulch and soil products packaging business,” Gibney says. “Our packaging plant in Wickliffe, Ohio is a fully automated line, which has now been operating for over a decade, and on average, outputs about 1.8 million bags of product yearly.”
Between 2008 and 2010, GVM also started to get into soil products.
Green Vision Materials : a Model For s uccess in the Mulch & s oil Business
Between the year 2000 to the year 2010, Green Vision Materials built their bulk mulch business significantly, selling just two products to local landscapers, garden centers and homeowners –a double-ground and a triple-ground mulch.
Beau Gibney, CEO/COO at Green Vision Materials (GVM) based out of Newbury, Ohio, near Cleveland, began in the mulch and soil products business after starting his own landscaping company right out of high school, in the early nineties. Through that decade, he aggressively grew his business and found he was generating a huge amount of green“Iwaste.waslooking for avenues to manage our wood waste, leaves and other green waste and I ran into somebody that rented a horizontal grinder, at a time when they were only just becoming popular in the industry,” Gibney explains. “We processed our own material, and we learned quick that because of the cost of renting the machine and the limited volume we had, it was not Gibneyprofitable.”started networking with other landscapers, who began bringing them their green waste. Once they got material volumes up, they purchased a well-used tub grinder. “That’s kind of what put us on the map,” he says. “When we started Green Vision Materials in 2000, we had one facility and we were pushing maybe 15,000 yards of product annually. We were the only ones in our area grinding material and what we found was that the landscapers that were dumping debris with us were also now interested in purchasing mulch products. It became a great revolving door.”
Since 2010, their mulch products business, all inclusive, went from about 15,000 yards to about 200,000 yards per year and is continuing to grow. He says a key factor in this growth has been their strategy of working with companies that bid on and ultimately secure contracts with big box stores. “We positioned ourselves as a copackager where we produce the product, which then goes into bags branded for companies and sold big box stores.” Today, they also produce a wide range of products including planting mix, bio-retention and basin mixes, as well as various composts, including animal manure and pure leaf humus mixes. “We’ll do blends of any of those products. We have customers that will, for one reason or another need a specific blend of materials, so we will custom blend those for them.”
Gibney continues, “We’re seeing very good
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Keith Barker, based out of British Columbia, Canada, is the former Editor of Recycling Product News magazine, and has been covering the organics recycling and composting sectors for over two decades.
3July / August 2022 Soil & Mulch Producer News Soil & Mulch Producer NEWS Continued from page 1 Publisher / Editor Rick Downing Contributing Editors / Writers Keith Barker • Robert L. LaGasse Sandy Woodthorpe Production & Layout Christine Mantush Advertising Sales Rick Downing Subscription / Circulation Donna Downing Editorial, Circulation & Advertising Office 6075 Hopkins Road, Mentor, OH 44060 Ph: 440-257-6453 • Fax: 440-257-6459 Email: downassoc2@oh.rr.com Subscription information, call 440-257-6453. Soil & Mulch Producer News is published bimonthly by Downing & Associates. Reproductions or transmission in whole or in part, without written permission of the publisher, is prohibited. Annual subscription rate U.S. is $19.95. Outside of the U.S. add $10 ($29.95). Contact our main office, or mail-in the subscription form with payment. ©Copyright 2022 by Downing & Associates www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com PUBLICATION STAFF Printed on Post-Consumer Recycled Paper growth in the compost, and our biggest growth potential is going to be in our soil products organic topsoil, humus and organic fertilizer replacements. I love the compost and the soils together because a lot of what we do are blended products. In the Cleveland area, we have very clay-heavy soil structures, which is not great for growing. If we want to do any significant planting, we really need to amend our soil with something more organic. That’s really been a big plus for us. For our soil products and compost business, we are currently at about 50,000 yards of sales and distribution yearly, and that is growing.”
Gibney adds that in their area, they have a lot of competition, so one way they set themselves apart is through offering exceptional customer service. “You can buy a product like ours in a number of different places, but really who’s going to take care of the customer the best?” he asks. “What we found is, especially with our retail sales, homeowners, they really want that service, ease of ordering, and a friendly person on the other end of the phone or on our site. We have grown our business greatly through customer service.”
Green Vision Materials P.O. Box 412 • 223 Marginal Road New Stanton, PA 15672 PHONE: (724) 925-8500 FAX: (724) 800-348-0765925-6421 Email: dsmalis@mac.com Web site: www.radialstackers.com REPLACEMENTCONVEYORPARTS • Pulleys • Belts • Idlers • Motors • Gearboxes • Hood Covers • Fasteners NationwideReasonableAvailabilityPrices CONVEYORSRADIALSTACKERSCONVEYORPARTS
Green Vision Materials
Beau Gibney, CEO/COO
“I’d like to grow within the confines of what we have in terms of facilities,” he concludes. “I still think there’s room for growth within our current market and there’s even room to grow in our current facility. I’m not looking to add any new facilities or double the size of the company or anything like that. A controlled, consistent growth is what we’re aiming for.”
He says through the next year their plan involves maintaining a ‘bit of a tight belt.’ “With all the uncertainty going on, while we are still seeing growth in spite of everything going on in the world, I’m a little cautious. Where I normally would venture out and add a new product or another machine, we are using this year to wait and see, and reassess next year. That is probably a common strategy currently.
Within the past year, GVM has also begun offering online ordering, which has been a significant factor in recent growth. “This has been huge for us,” Gibney says. “At first we were reluctant, just because it was costly to set it up. I was apprehensive but I went ahead with it and I’ll tell you I have been completely shocked at how fast it took off. This is our first year to have it, and it’s already paid Itdividends.”isnosecret that businesses around the world currently, in almost every industry, are experiencing human resources challenges. For GVM, Gibney says however, they have not really had any significant issues finding and keeping quality employees. “I am probably the only guy you’re going to talk to that says we’re actually doing really well on the employee front. We’ve got a great staff and we have plenty of people, and I spend a lot of time networking and recruiting. Because of this, manpower really has not been an issue up to this point.” The key to this, he says, is in part, simply treating employees like family.“Imake myself very accessible. I am always willing to talk with the guys, and we make them feel like family. We only have fifty people, so we are not a huge employer. We know everybody’s name, and we pay what we feel is a little bit above market average for the work they are doing. That goes a long way. At the end of the day, people are here for a paycheck and so we try to take good care of the benefits plan and everything else. So even though we’re adequately staffed, if I meet somebody tonight who’s an excellent truck driver, we’ll bring them on board. We will find them a home. I don’t wait until we need somebody to find our next quality employee.”
news From the Mulch & soil Council
The growing media industry, both retail and professional, is facing unprecedented demand, growth, popularity, and significance both domestically and globally. As the global demand for soilless substrates is projected to increase over 400% in the coming decades, coupled with transportation and supply chain uncertainties, future peat supply instability, sustainability concerns, and new growing markets for substrates, we find ourselves facing many unique challenges and opportunities, many of which will be highlighted in this presentation.
New: Plant Biostimulant Act OF 2022 Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and Jim Baird (R-IN) recently introduced the Plant Biostimulant Act of 2022, H.R. 7752. Plant biostimulants are products that can be used in both agricultural and non-agricultural settings that improve natural plant nutritional processes, which can result in improved plant health; tolerance to abiotic and other environmental stresses; and improved overall growth, quality, and yield of crops.Plant biostimulant products and technologies face several challenges that can impede their uses in commercial agriculture, home gardens, turf, and ornamental applications, thus reducing the sustainability enhancements these products offer. The biggest challenge for plant biostimulants being the lack of consistent and predictable path to market for plant biostimulant products in the United States. To address this problem, the plant biostimulant industry is working on the ability to use the term
Continued on page 6
Mark your calendar now to attend the 51st MSC Annual Meeting at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown Hotel in Charlotte, NC, on Oct. 4-6, 2022
By RoBeRt LaGasse, executive DiRectoR Brian Jackson to Present 51st MSC Keynote Address Mulch & Soil Council (MSC) Annual Meeting Chair Joe Ertel (Oldcastle Lawn & Garden) is pleased to announce that a rising star in the horticultural science profession– Dr. Brian Jackson –will be the keynote luncheon speaker for the 51st MSC Annual Meeting in Charlotte, NC, on Oct. 4-6, 2022.
4 Soil & Mulch Producer News July / August 2022 Soil & Mulch Producer NEWS
Brian is a Professor in the Department of Horticultural Science and is the Director of the Horticultural Substrates Lab at NC State University, succeeding our long-time friend and industry expert Dr. Bill Fonteno on his retirement.Brianhas studied and researched soilless growing media since 2003 and has built his research program and professional reputation around the development, utilization, and commercialization of engineered wood-based materials and other peat alternatives used in soilless plant production. Brian is heavily involved with national and international substrate companies in collaborations on innovative solutions for the future of soilless cultivation. He is a frequent writer on topics related to soilless substrates in industry trade magazines, and he often is a speaker at regional and national meetings.
Brian’s topic for this important keynote presentation is: Current Challenges & Opportunities in the Growing Media Industry
5July / August 2022 Soil & Mulch Producer News www.chromascape.com service@chromascape.com
• Amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) to exclude plant biostimulants from being regulated under the Act, and
• Establish a definition for nutritional chemical,
“biostimulants” in commerce and education and clarity on appropriate product claims. To help achieve these goals, the Plant Biostimulant Act will:
• Amend the definition for a vitamin hormone product,
• Require the U.S. Environmental Agency (EPA) to review and revise existing Code of Federal regulations to include this new plant biostimulant definition,
U.S. Potting Soils & Mixes Market est. I~$850M n a recent market report authored by Arizton Advisory & Intelligence, the global potting soil and mixes market was valued at ~$2.14 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $2.77 billion by 2027. In 2021, the estimated U.S. market value was $850 million and is expected to grow at the rate of 4.5% annually through 2027. According to Arizton: • Increasing demand in enhancing interior aesthetics and improving greenery is one of the major factors driving the global potting soil and mixes market growth.
MSC will continue to monitor this Act as it moves through Congress.
• Require USDA to study how plant biostimulant products can contribute to soil health.
Continued from page 4 news From the MsC Continued on page 8
6 Soil & Mulch Producer News July / August 2022 Soil & Mulch Producer NEWS
• Establish a uniform national definition for “plant biostimulant”,
7July / August 2022 Soil & Mulch Producer News
F
Trucking Industry Forecast
• User friendly and multipurpose planting mixes and soils can be prioritized in the DIY and residential segments as it is increasingly dominated by indoor gardening, floriculture and ornamental industries, especially in the western markets. It has also become mandatory as the lock down in 2020 enhanced the skill sets of consumers through gardening. This can fuel the demand for potting soil and mixes.
• Due to the growing interest in home improvements and maintaining anesthetics, such as ornamental gardening, potting mixes and soils are used as a growing medium. Vendors are providing various specialty clinic mixes and soils to meet the users’ needs.
• The growing residential and commercial segment is expected to witness significant growth in garden and landscaping activities owing to the rise in “green construction” of new homes and buildings.
• Garden tools should have more e-commerce presence, and they need to lure more customers and drive sales. Vendors may enter into strategic agreements with home improvement stores and retailers to enhance their product reach in the industry.
uturist Nikolas Badminton explored how the trucking industry could change in the years ahead and what that means when it comes to driver recruitment. Addressing the 2022 trucking industry Recruitment & Retention Conference held June 1-3, Badminton looked at a variety of trends and economic factors when speculating on what may be ahead for trucking.
Continued from page 6 news From the MsC Continued on page 10
• The concept of indoor gardening has largely gained traction by millennials owing to self-improvement, wellness, and social credibility to opt for quality soil, increasing the demand for artificial soil during the forecasted period.
8 Soil & Mulch Producer News July / August 2022 Soil & Mulch Producer NEWS
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• By 2030 forecasting that to be about 162,000 drivers.
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• Autonomous driving technology will not replace all human drivers.
Trucking Technology:
Future Trucking Markets:
• 70% of all goods are moved by the trucking in US.
• Manufacturers have brought operations back into the country to be able to ship more locally as a result.
• Current driver shortage is over 80,000 truck drivers.
Basaga International, a producer of hard and soft wood chips, plywood, veneers, and medium-density fiberboard (MDF) took over a terminal previously operated Yildiz Entegre. According to Basaga’s owner, it took about four years and more than $2.5 million to revamp the facility, which had been shut down following Hurricane Florence in 2018. Capital equipment investments include a conveyer system, loader and a new electric room. Most of the logs the facility receives for chipping are softwood pine, sourced from forests within approximately 100 miles of the port. The company exports virtually all the chips it produces onsite, as well as volumes it receives from other producers. This year, Basaga expects to ship a total of 400,000 short tons of wood chips to buyers located in Turkey, where the firm’s corporate offices are based. In addition to the Port of Wilmington site, the company owns other wood chip facilities located in Alabama. The company is looking at a potential expansion at the port in Morehead City.
• Autonomous truck sales to grow to $88 billion by 2027.
• Emerging mega-regions could absorb 75% of US population growth by 2050; so, regional trucking by 2050 could be a predominant part of the industry.
Basaga ShippingInternationalWoodChips from Port of Wilmington, NC Port of Wilmington, NC — Shipping has resumed from Basaga International’s Port of Wilmington facility with 36,000 short tons of wood chips heading to Turkey, reports Wilmingtonbiz. com
• E-commerce sales went up by nearly $219 billion between 2020 and 2021 and is expected to grow from $1.5 trillion to more than $7 trillion by 2025.
The Mulch & Soil Council began in 1972 and is the national association of producers of horticultural mulches, consumer potting soils and commercial growing media. Its mission is to define quality products and promote an open market and fair competition. To learn more about The Mulch & Soil Council, visit mulchandsoilcouncil.org or call 806-832-1810.
• That is >$800 million in economic value.
Continued from page 8 news From the MsC Subscribe to Soil & Mulch Producer News order on-line at www.soilandmulchproducernews.com
• Self-driving trucks could run continuously without a need for food or sleep breaks, resulting in consistent mileage rates and faster delivery.
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An agricultural economics and agribusiness expert at LSU’s AgCenter recalls spiking prices of $1,500 per 1,000 board feet, which have dipped down to $600 per 1,000 board feet this year, but even those prices are double the $350 per 1,000 board feet seen before the pandemic.
Expansion includes a new $110 million sawmill in Bossier Parish to be built by British Columbia-based Teal Jones, a $240 million sawmill in Bienville Parish, a $160 million mill in DeRidder, $157 million in upgrades to a mill in Holden, and a smaller investment in Avoyelles Parish. Canadabased Interfor is planning to invest $8 million to restart a shuttered DeQuincy mill.
“Red Hot” Timber Industry in NLouisiana
ew Orleans, LA — Spurred in part by the housing and lumber price spike during the COVID-19 pandemic, Louisiana’s forestry industry is heating up with six new projects announced between May 2021 and April of this year, reports Nola.com
State economic development officials have estimated that the new projects could add more than 2,000 new jobs in total.
12 Soil & Mulch Producer News July / August 2022 Soil & Mulch Producer NEWS
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High supplies and lower costs are incentives for mills to relocate from western states where production is more expensive. Trees are the state’s biggest ag business by revenue and have been a critical crop for more than a century, with nearly half of the state covered by forest. Louisiana produced nearly 1.5 billion board feet of sawtimber per year in the 1990s, and although the 2007-2008 recession and housing crisis slowed things down considerably, the state’s forestry industry is on the upswing.
Arbor Renewable Gas plans to build a plant in West Baton Rouge and Origin Materials staking out Ascension Parish for its plant. Both will use wood pellets as biofuel.
Drax, a United Kingdom-based company, already has three plants in Louisiana where they produce wood pellets that are used for fuel, including shipping some to England for use in electricity generation.
13July / August 2022 Soil & Mulch Producer News
Lumber Prices Remain High Amid Recession Jitters
Cotton G-BedsheetsCompostingandBurrs
14 Soil & Mulch Producer News July / August 2022 Soil & Mulch Producer NEWS
C
The first crop harvested on ground composted with textile waste was planted in June 2021. Bedsheet shred was applied at a rate of approximately 55 tons per acre. Within six months, the material had disintegrated, with no ill effects to the cotton plants. The project’s findings could offer a simple solution to the massive global problem of textile waste, according to a University of New England soil scientist. Cotton composting is not a new idea. The scientist notes that it was done in Australia between the two world wars, and in Europe during the industrial revolution.
The main obstacle to large-scale natural fiber textile recycling is the lack of automated sorting facilities to handle the tremendous amount of sheets, clothing, and other articles people throw away. According to an SFGate.com article, the cotton plant itself is being composted and sold as a soil amendment for outdoor and indoor plants, as well as lawns. Gardeners can purchase bags of the material, which is made from seeds, stems, and leaves of the cotton plant that are left after cotton harvest. High in macronutrients and micronutrients, it helps to aerate clay soils and fight weed growth, as well as prevent plant damage from harmful organisms and diseases.
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Fastmarkets’ current forecast is for US softwood lumber consumption to be down by 1.4% from 2021, or about 700 MMBF. While declining consumption in a given year should be the obvious first prerequisite for making that assessment, the drop in demand is modest by historical standards. The reporting agency sees sawmill capacity closures at a similar level to 2019, it will be safe to say that the volatile Covid-19 boom and bust in demand has caused another recession in the lumber sector.
oondiwindi Queensland, Australia — A cotton farmer in southern Queensland is composting old cotton sheets and emergency service coveralls as part of a study by University of New England, reports a Yahoo.com article.
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anadian lumber prices will continue to be historically high but could decrease by 17% by the end of 2023, according to a Bloomberg Canada interview with an ERA Forest Products Research equity research analyst. In the US, concerns about inflation and rising interest rates are contributing to a negative impact on US lumber prices, which dropped to an average of $618/MBF in June, reports Fastmarkets.com, a commodity price reporting agency. US lumber prices peaked at an average of $1,275/MBF in March of this year. The Random Lengths Framing Lumber Composite Price (FLCP) tumbled to an average of $618/ MBF in NewJune.home sales reported by the US Census and the NAHB’s Housing Market Index (HMI), indicators of building activity have shown aggressive correction, practically returning to 2019 levels based on the latest monthly data, the Fastmarkets article goes on to say. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s reported home purchase applications are down by over 20% since the beginning of the year. According to the HMI survey, builder sales expectations for the next six months slipped to a rating of 61 after hovering consistently at or above 80 for the last two years. June’s reading was also the lowest since May 2020 (46) at the outbreak of the pandemic. Although the all-time highs last year seem to be fading and the market remains volatile, one potentially moderating factor on wood demand is the historic number of homes under construction. Many homes are still months away from delivery and cycle times for single-family homes remain at 8-10 months until completion. Other contributors to pricing correction are declining wood products sales and home remodeling activity, reported by big box home improvement retailers as a result of subsiding effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The investigators were also able to predict water quality by analyzing the microbiome for species that affect both soil regeneration and downstream waters, said Spear, who added that the methodology may lead to a better understanding of both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem recovery post-wildfire.
Soils influence water quality, and they are critical to plant growth.
However, it has been difficult to predict how plant growth and water quality would change in the wake of wildfires. Now, a team of Colorado investigators has devised new methodology to enable such predictions. The research is published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology (asm.org).
Back in the lab, the investigators measured soil carbon, nitrogen and other important molecules. They also took the census of the microbiome— the species present, and the quantities of each in the soils.
“To make practical predictions about recovery, we had to use a modern artificial intelligence tool called statistical learning,” said John Spear, Ph.D., professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colo. “When we fed data about the microbes and nutrients into this model, we were able to predict how soil is changed by fire far more accurately.”
“The trick,” said Spear, “was to do this over and over in a thorough fashion for 3 years, generating a dataset of more than 500 soil samples. Then, we wanted to see if the pattern of recovery of soil after fire could be predicted from this unique dataset, using statistical learning.”
After Wildfires
In the study, “We went out to 2 active wildfires in Colorado in 2018 and 2019, and collected soil shortly after the smoldering stopped,” said Spear. “This was as simple as shoveling soil into a bucket. We returned to the same sites for 3 summers [2018, 2019, and 2020], collecting more samples, and followed up as the landscape recovered from the black of burn to the green of new growth.”
16 Soil & Mulch Producer News July / August 2022 Soil & Mulch Producer NEWS
H
The methodology worked, despite the fact that the dataset is quite diverse—representing different severities of wildfire and various soil types and seasons. “That’s good news for our approach, because [the methodology] appears to work on many different conditions of soil,” said TheSpear.research was motivated by Honeyman’s decade of experience as a volunteer firefighter and having lost his home to a Colorado wildfire in 2010. This experience raised important questions for him. Would soil recover nutrients that had been lost in a fire? The investigators also wanted to know whether water quality would be renewed. “We asked ourselves how we could describe recovery in a way that’s actually useful to land managers,” said Spear, noting that, “our forest service coauthors, who are land managers, really liked this work.”
Spear emphasized that combining information on the types and quantities of both microbes and nutrients increased accuracy. Another intriguing discovery was that including microbiota that are uncommon in soil—those that constituted less than 1% of the microbiome—was critical to the predictions’ accuracy.
“This apparent contradiction is a fascinating outcome of our study and runs contrary to the common wisdom that if we measure 99% of what’s living in soil, we’ll have a great sense of how that soil will behave,” said first author Alexander S. Honeyman, Ph.D., research associate at the Colorado School of Mines.
New Methodology Helps Predict Soil Recovery
17July / August 2022 Soil & Mulch Producer News 1 Join us in North Carolina’s largest city for MSC’s 51st Annual Meeting! Covering topics for everyone from owners and plant managers to account and marketing managers to industry suppliers. This year’s meeting topics will include: • Insight Into Upcoming Mid-term Elections • Fire Safety: Solving Today’s Double Threat • New Ways for Recruitment & Retention • Taking Charge of Your Business Insurance Program & Costs • Women in the Mulch & Soil Industry Keynote Speaker: Dr. Brian Jackson Current Challenges & Opportunities in the Growing Media Industry We hope to see you there! Charlotte Mulch & Soil Council 2022 Annual Meeting October 4 - 6, 2022 Hilton Charlotte Uptown Charlotte, NC For more info, go www.mulchandsoilcouncil.orgto
To apply, visit: https://mes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Careers/details/Senior-Operations-Manager_R01138
18 Soil & Mulch Producer News July / August 2022 Soil & Mulch Producer NEWS
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By contrast, the Clean Power Plan included some measures that applied industry wide. The decision still leaves the EPA with significant authority to use the same provision of the Clean Air Act to set technology-based standards that make power plants operate more cleanly, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council article.
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n June, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6-3 in West Virginia v. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), establishing that the Environmental Protection Agency lacks the constitutional authority to require coal-fired power plants to shift to wind, solar, and other cleaner fuel sources, reports SCOTUSblog.com.
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“The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is reversed, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion,” concluded Chief JusticeTheRoberts.Trump administration’s EPA repealed the Clean Power Plan in 2019, replacing it with a more lenient policy, known as the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, that established emissions guidelines only for existing coal-fired steam plants.The Trump EPA argued that it was compelled to repeal the Clean Power Plan because it exceeded the agency’s authority under the Clean Air Act. Specifically, the EPA contended, Section 7411 of the act only allowed it to prescribe measures that can be implemented on the physical premises of a power plant – a limitation known in industry parlance as “inside the fenceline.”
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In accepting the case, SCOTUS Blog explains, the Supreme Court demonstrated it has jurisdiction to resolve such disputes and also that the lower court’s decision violated the “major questions” doctrine — the idea that if Congress wants to give an administrative agency the power to make “decisions of vast economic and political significance,” it must say so clearly.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, a not-for-profit environmental advocate, notes in a recent article that, “Even though the rule never went into effect, market forces had already begun to drive a major transformation within the industry. Power sector emissions were falling fast—so fast that they actually reached the EPA’s 2030 goal more than a decade early, in 2019.”
In 2015, the Obama administration’s adoption of the Clean Power Plan, a rule that sought to combat climate change by reducing carbon pollution from power plants. The plan never went into effect, however: Several states and private plaintiffs challenged it in federal court, and a divided Supreme Court put it on hold.
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