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The Supreme Court of the United States on Thursday ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lacks authority under the Clean Air Act (CAA) to broadly regulate carbon emissions in the US.
The 6-3 opinion in the case West Virginia v. EPA split along partisan lines with all liberal justices dissenting. The decision stands among a string of recent and highly controversial rulings by the conservative-dominated court, most notable being its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization opinion overturning the constitutional right to abortion.
The court’s decision in West Virginia narrows the precent set in 2007’s Massachusetts v. EPA, which held that the EPA has authority to regulate carbon emissions as a “pollutant” under the Clean Air Act. Acting on this authority, the Obama administration EPA issued a rule in 2015 called the Clean Power Plan (CPP) that would regulate power plant emissions across the US.
The rule was halted from taking effect by the Supreme Court in 2016, with its ultimate legality pending. It was shortly thereafter watered down by the Trump administration EPA, which replaced the CPP with its own Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. In 2021, a legal challenge to the ACE rule succeeded at the D.C. Court of Appeals; the court found the ACE rule violated the CAA.
With the Biden administration positioned to create an entirely new successor regulation to both the CPP and ACE rules, the Supreme Court’s recent decision represents a successful move by several conservative state governments to undercut the EPA’s authority over carbon emissions. The decision also further illustrates the current court incarnation’s staunchly anti-regulatory stance - foreshadowing future rulings likely to stymie other attempted executive-level climate actions.
In a scathing dissent, liberal justice Elana Kagan stated that “the Court today prevents congressionally authorized agency action to curb power plants’ carbon dioxide emissions. The Court appoints itself—instead of Congress or the expert agency—the decisionmaker on climate policy. I cannot think of many things more frightening.”
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