A vote to block the Obama administration's ambitious climate regulation was one of Antonin Scalia's last acts as a Supreme Court justice. His sudden death may have opened a new path to the rule's survival.
Scalia died Saturday. Four days earlier, he voted with the other conservative members of the high court to put a hold on the administration's plans to implement the Clean Power Plan while it is litigated.
The regulation is designed to lower carbon emissions from U.S. power plants by 2030 to 32 percent below 2005 levels. The rule is the United States' main tool to meet the emissions reduction target pledge it made at U.N. climate talks in Paris in December.