As climate change continues to put the at its mercy, the U.S. Supreme Court imposed restrictions on multiple agencies on other matters and placed restrictions on the federal government’s ability to enact comprehensive rules to cut carbon emissions from power plants. This action jeopardizes the Biden administration’s Green plan, keeping the U.S. the world’s second-most polluting country.
The Clean Air Act anti-pollution statute limits the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to control greenhouse gas emissions from current coal- and gas-fired power facilities. West Virginia initiated the ruling on behalf of eighteen other states, most of which are run by Republicans and some of the country’s biggest coal businesses.
The Supreme Court ruled to limit the EPA’s authority to control the pollution that comes from fossil fuel power plants, which are responsible for 30% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. The nineteen states who initiated this change feared that their power-supplying industries would be controlled. They also worried that they would be compelled to stop utilizing coal, which would be extremely expensive. The court’s 6-3 ruling kept conservatives in the majority and liberals lacking.
The decision throws the U.S. even further off track from President Biden’s goal of running the U.S. power grid on clean energy by 2035 — and making the entire economy carbon-neutral by 2050. A White House representative spoke on the matter, elaborating on how they plan to respond to the control changes, “President Biden will not relent in using the authorities that he has under law to protect public health and tackle the climate change crisis.”
Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the dissenters: “The Court designates itself as the decisionmaker on climate policy – rather than Congress or the expert agency. Many people worldwide fear what will happen next as heatwaves break records, countries experience power outages and experienced some of the harshest storm seasons in over fifty years. There aren’t many things that terrify me more.”
Kagan’s interpretation was disputed by Justice Gorsuch, who concurred with the judgment, and stated: “the Court acknowledges only that… the people’s elected representatives in Congress are the decisionmakers here – and they have not clearly granted the agency the authority it claims for itself.”
