One of Scalia’s last acts in his three-decade tenure on the highest US court was to vote last week to halt the implementation of President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) until its legality is upheld by the courts.

The stay issued on the CPP was a blow to renewables, which are counting on the plan to fuel demand for new sources of zero-carbon power generation after the recently extended wind production tax credit and solar investment tax credit expire once again around the turn of the decade.

Many