On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA can’t use the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Dealing a huge blow to plans fighting climate change.
A big part of Biden’s plan to fight climate change was using the EPA’s authority to reduce power plants emissions, which account for about 30% of carbon dioxide output.
However, the reasoning behind this ruling can lead to bigger ramifications that the limitation of the Clean Air Act.
“The legal doctrine that the Supreme Court embraced in reaching their decision could also be used to roll back other environmental regulations,” says Tim Maloney with the Hoosier Environmental Council.
While the Supreme Court is limiting the EPA, they say that the efforts to fight climate change should go to legislative bodies to enact specific policies.
“That’s clearly going to send a signal to Indiana that the state shouldn’t go any farther than what the Supreme Court decision allows, even though technically speaking they could.”
He says the Supreme Court’s ruling, coupled with Indiana’s current climate change policies, could send a signal to go no further than what the new ruling allows.
He says it’s also surprising, since Maloney considers the EPA’s Clean Air Act flexible, and with a societal push towards clean energy practices, even popular with the main producers of emissions.
“…This ruling takes away that flexibility, which I would think that a lot of folks in industry and the power generation section would be very concerned about.”
1 comment
The EXECUTIVE BRANCH has no business making laws, and regulations are just laws that bureaucrats pass in the shadows instead of forcing open debate in the LEGISLATIVE arena. The JUDICIAL branch made absolutely the right call here! If they want greenie laws, debate them and vote on them like they are supposed to.
It’s amazing how well the system actually works when the politicians can be made to follow the rules!