by Chris Black
Pass the popcorn, this summer will be interesting.
US Supreme Court curbs EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions t.co/U7y2rKzYQn First abortion and now climate: what else will right-wing extremists on the US Supreme Court do to cause harm?
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) June 30, 2022
“The opinion from the court’s conservative majority said that “a decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body”.
The justices added they doubted Congress intended to delegate the question of “how much coal-based generation there should be over the coming decades, to any administrative agency”.”
I think this is too little, too late.
The EPA has shutdown half the coal fired power plants in America and shut down half the coal mines in the last decade.
Just in the last 2 years, EPA regulators have forced the closure of 25% of US oil refineries.
If we don’t change course rapidly, this is going to get very ugly.
The good news is that “West Virginia v. EPA begins chips away at the ability of federal agencies — all of them, not just EPA — to write and enforce regulations.”, which means the ruling is MUCH bigger than the climate change topic so it can be applied to the ATF, FBI, etc.
Time will tell.