October 7, 2024--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The U.S. Supreme Court begins its 2024-2025 term today, October 7, the first Monday of October. But last Friday, it handed down two procedural decisions that supported, for now, the Biden administration's energy and environment agenda.

In unsigned orders issued last Friday, the high court denied requests from Republican-led states and energy-industry groups to intervene in two cases already being litigated in lower courts: The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) rule imposing tighter emissions standards for mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from coal-fired power plants, and the EPA's regulation of methane emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas pollutant, from oil and natural gas facilities.