Michael Regan’s EPA is facing the harshest legal headwinds in history. Here’s why he’s still bullish

By Ella Nilsen, CNN

(CNN) — Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan is bullish on his agency’s prospects against the harshest headwinds in its history, as Republicans, anti-climate industry and an ultra-conservative Supreme Court take aim at its core mission.

“I feel extremely confident in the product we put out,” Regan told CNN in an interview at a Climate Action Campaign event on Tuesday, just hours after Republican attorneys general and industry groups asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block the EPA from enforcing new rules that aim to curb planet-warming emissions from power plants.

The EPA’s new rules will compel some coal and natural gas power plants to either cut or capture 90% of their climate pollution by 2032. The rules are expected to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from the sector by 75% compared to a peak in 2005, and they are a huge part of President Joe Biden’s strategy to quickly cut US planet-warming pollution.

But the power plant rules – along with other regulations to cut pollution from cars and oil and gas wells – are in danger of landing in front of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority. The court has a “hair trigger” in taking up cases involving the EPA, experts told CNN earlier this year, with several justices deeply skeptical of its mission and “hostile” toward its rulemaking authority.

Regan is well aware of this dynamic. He defended the power plant rules on Tuesday and said the EPA “took to heart” an earlier SCOTUS ruling that limited the ways the agency could cut pollution from the power sector.

“We’re looking at something completely different that’s on the right side of the law,” Regan said. “In anticipation of a skeptical court, we took our time when we put this rule out.”

Regan also weighed in on another hugely consequential Supreme Court action this year: the overturning of the longstanding legal precedent known as the “Chevron doctrine.” Chevron essentially told courts to defer to an agency’s interpretation of older, ambiguous laws – like the Clean Water Act or the Clean Air Act – when designing its rules. The court’s decision makes countless agency regulations vulnerable to legal challenge.

“We are not happy about the Chevron decision,” Regan told CNN. “I would argue maybe Congress shouldn’t be either.”

However, Regan said the EPA has been designing its rules to try to make them legally durable even after the death of Chevron.

Even though the EPA is facing lawsuits from all fronts, Regan has also presided over the agency at a time when it’s been flush with federal funds from laws like the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law. That cash is going to key Biden administration priorities like eradicating lead pipes, replacing diesel school buses with electric or low-emission buses, and granting out billions of dollars to states, cities and tribes to reduce pollution.

“EPA is playing a completely different role than we’ve ever had before,” Regan said. “I was penalized by Congress for joking and saying we finally have some walking around money. But when you have a little extra cash to give out, people receive you differently.”

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