Justice Kennedy's Replacement Could Make It Harder to Fight Climate Change

TIME ^ | June 27, 2018 | By JUSTIN WORLAND

[Oldeconomybuyer]

The retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy could allow the nation’s highest court to change its mind on whether the Environmental Protection Agency has to fight climate change.

As a crucial swing vote, the Reagan appointee joined liberals in a landmark 5-4 decision in 2007 that the EPA is required to address climate change if its own scientists found that it posed a risk to public health. Two years later the agency made exactly that determination, issuing a scientific document known as the endangerment finding.

“We’re not going to get another Kennedy who’s going to play that moderating role,” says Deborah Sivas, a professor of environmental law at Stanford University. “Since it’s a matter of statutory interpretation instead of bedrock constitutional principles I could see folks try to set up a new challenge.”

The decision in Massachusetts v. EPA underpinned a series of Obama-era climate regulations that aimed at boosting vehicle fuel economy standards, cutting carbon dioxide emissions form power plants and reducing methane emissions in the oil and gas sector.

Many conservatives consider Massachusetts v. EPA and the endangerment finding an overreach. And the decision could easily find itself on the chopping block. In his dissent, then-Justice Antonin Scalia argued that the Clean Air Act, the basis of Massachusetts v. EPA, does not mention climate change and instead targets more conventional air pollution, arguing the EPA is out of line to try to regulate greenhouse gases.

[justa-hairyape]

So appointing a constitutionalist will make it more difficult for the anti-constitutionalists. Got it. Oh, and we have always been at war with climate change.

[Hardastarboard]

As soon as I saw the headline, I knew it had to be you. I literally clicked on the thread to see the picture of the MSM’s godfather, old Joe Goebbels. You’re just brilliant at this, LOL!!!

[Chode]