President Obama’s landmark climate change regulation continues to be on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court offers a ruling on his “Clean Power Plan.” Yesterday, however, a major decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit fast-tracked the much anticipated decision.

On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit Court announced its full slate of judges (two of whom recused themselves) will review the president’s Clean Power Plan. Typically just three judges are randomly selected to hear such a case, after which either party can appeal the decision to an “en banc” review by the full court.

But with Tuesday’s announcement, the Clean Power Plan will bypass the three-judge review and go directly to en banc review. (Notably, President Obama’s nominee to fill Justice Scalia’s seat, Merrick Garland, is one of the two recused Appeals Court judges in the Clean Power Plan case.) Still, however, the D.C. Circuit’s ruling will matter only if the U.S. Supreme Court declines to take up the case or reviews it and offers an opinion in line with the lower court.

The Buckeye Institute and the state of Ohio have joined more than 100 entities across the country in the litigation to stop the Clean Power Plan, given its harmful effects on Ohio’s (and the country’s) economy. According to various studies, President Obama’s Clean Power Plan would:

• destroy an estimated 32,000 manufacturing jobs in Ohio
   
• raise Ohioans’ electricity prices by 15 percent per year, on average, over a decade
   
• implement a costly “cap and trade” scheme—that Congress already rejected—through an unaccountable federal bureaucracy

This case over the Clean Power Plan has been as unpredictable as the weather: Late in 2015, the D.C. Circuit court declined the request from the Buckeye Institute and others to issue a “stay” order that would stop the EPA from implementing the regulation while the lawsuit is ongoing. In an unprecedented move, several parties appealed the request to the Supreme Court, which overturned the D.C. Circuit’s 5-4 decision in February and granted the stay. Less than a week later, Justice Antonin Scalia’s death cast doubt on the Clean Power Plan’s future.

The D.C. Circuit’s surprising move to fast-track their review underscores the importance of the case. Now, all eyes are on the nomination for the next justice, who will likely cast the decisive vote as to whether the regulation will stand.

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