After months of debate and public comments, President Obama's controversial Clean Power Plan (CPP) was issued in August 2015 and published in the Federal Register on October 23, 2015. But that is hardly the end of the story. Instead the saga is just beginning'with the ending to be written sometime in 2017 and the outcome highly dependent on who resides in the White House.

The CPP is the newest set of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that the Atlantic states: "anchors the Obama administration's climate-change policy. It seeks to guide local utilities away from coal-fired electricity generation, and toward renewable energy and natural gas"'with a goal of reducing CO2 emissions from existing power plants by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. States are required to submit implementations plans by September 6, 2016 with emission reductions scheduled to begin on January 1, 2022.

Immediately following the rule's publication, a coalition of 24 states and a coal mining company, led by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R), filed a lawsuit to challenge the CPP. Morrisey called it: "flatly illegal and one of the most aggressive executive branch power grabs we've seen in a long time."

The Hill reports: "They are asking the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to overturn the rule. They also want the court to immediately stop its implementation while it works its way through the courts." Differing from the Cincinnati-based Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that in October issued a stay for the Waters of the U.S. rule, on January 21, 2016, the federal court refused to put a hold on the CPP while the litigation proceeds. It did, however, agree to expedite the case with oral arguments beginning on June 2.

Days later, January 26, in an unusual move, the petitioners'which now include 29 states (Nevada is the latest to oppose CPP, to protect "Nevada's vital tourism industry." On February 24, Attorney General Laxalt filed a brief to highlight the federal agency's overreach and disregard for the rule of law associated with CPP.) and a large group of utility companies and energy industry trade groups'turned to the Supreme Court (SCOTUS). Morrisey acknowledged: "While we know a stay request to the Supreme Court isn't typical at this stage of the proceedings, we must pursue this option to mitigate further damage from this rule." Knowing that SCOTUS has never before engaged in a case before a federal court even heard the initial arguments, CPP supporters, like Sierra Club Chief Climate Counsel Joanne Spalding, apparently felt confident, calling the appeal: "another G