Posted on 07/01/2022 4:06:37 PM PDT by Steely Tom
The Supreme Court on Thursday imposed major constraints on the breadth of EPA's authority to limit carbon emissions from power plants.
Why it matters: The 6-3 ruling in West Virginia v. EPA will likely make it harder for the Biden administration to meet its climate targets — and may tie the hands of future administrations that want to take aggressive action on climate change.
The decision may also invite challenges to sweeping regulations imposed by other agencies, in a bid to constrain the bureaucracy writ large.
Driving the news: The court said EPA lacks wide latitude under the current Clean Air Act to force changes in the country's power mix that speed movement toward zero-carbon tech.
Instead, the court ruling holds that EPA should regulate emissions at the power plant level, rather than essentially setting up a national system that the opinion notes Congress has repeatedly failed to authorize.
"Congress did not grant EPA in Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act the authority to devise emissions caps based on the generation shifting approach the Agency took in the Clean Power Plan," the conservative majority wrote in West Virginia v. EPA.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion, joined by justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The three liberal justices, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer, dissented.
The intrigue: In the dissenting opinion, Kagan took the majority to task for purporting to know how much authority Congress intended to give to EPA.
"Whatever else this Court may know about, it does not have a clue about how to address climate change," Kagan wrote. "And let’s say the obvious: The stakes here are high. Yet 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."
The big picture: The new limits on executive power come as President Biden's huge clean energy investment package has stalled in Congress.
That puts a heavier burden on the federal agencies to cut planet-warming emissions with existing authorities, which now face new constraints.
The administration's climate goals include a 50% cut in economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and a fully decarbonized electricity sector by 2035.
Power plants are the second-largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
The administration is in the process of writing regulations for these facilities.
The decision follows a major scientific report on the fast-closing window to prevent some of the most dangerous effects of global warming, which is already causing substantial harm.
Catch up fast: The case stems from lower court battles over Obama-era rules to cut carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, and a more modest Trump-era replacement.
Neither regulation is in effect. But last year, GOP-led states and coal companies successfully petitioned the court to hear cases on the scope of EPA's power.
What we're watching: How EPA will seek to cut emissions from coal-fired power plants in light of the ruling.
In March, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the agency's plans include indirectly tackling CO2 with rules that target air and water pollution.
8 years, 6 months, and 18 days until the Earth ends, according to noted climate expert Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
What are these people going to do when weather trends revert
to cooling?
Even if it doesn’t, do they think we control the global
weather? We can’t.
Just imagine that at one point glaciers came down as far
as Yosemite Valley. That’s what they used to claim was
how they were made.
Before the 20th Century man couldn’t impact the weather
like they say we can today. And yet, those glaciers...
Where are they? Where were they in 1000 AD?
So many experts, and so little rational thinking...
Has anybody read the ruling? Somehow these wins seem good, but I can see based on the younger folks that kicking abortion to the states could back fire. Many are ‘personally pro-life’ but don’t believe they can inflict their beliefs on others. The EPA ruling on the heels of melting ice releasing super bugs, causing pandemics, seems oddly timed.
Biden will just ignore the Court.
Who is going to stop him?
Somehow these wins seem good
**************
Let’s see now...the USSC vs. the Deep State.
Not even a contest.
Deep State walks away with the win.
The administration’s climate goals include a 50% cut in economy-wide
____
Yes 50% cut in economy!
If they are lucky!
Obama did it all the time.
Exactly. The Left plays by their own rules.
Uh...the Court explicitly reminded the country that Congress - accountable for its own dumb decisions at the ballot box - must be the decision maker on climate policy.
Unlike Sotomayor, Kagan is not stupid enough to actually believe what she wrote. It's disappointing that she would release a statement tailored to use in Democrat sound bites rather than voicing an intelligent objection.
Opinion: Biden Fulfilling Pledge to End Fossil Fuels – Inside Sources
I think, it is good ruling. EPA gave then a way to implement Green new deal the “back way”. Using faceless bureaucrats.
Now, they have to put their names on and vote for it!
Not that easy!
People do not like Green New deal! We have vote on California like proposition clean energy here in AZ and it failed miserably. Then they tried the bureaucratic way and almost succeeded!
The same with abortion.
How many politicians will go on record and vote for baby killing! Not too any!
That’s why they used the Supreme court!
“Well, it is gross, but sorry, it is the constitution!”
That’s made it easy!
Time to pack it with about 35 new judges huh you old SOB
Seems likely. I’ve noticed a reoccurring trend of the right celebrating a big ‘win’, a ‘boom’ 💥 only to have the rug pulled out from under us. I’m reluctant to be optimistic.
The EPA is part of the “administrative state”, the name for federal agencies whose edicts have the force of law.
Congress has the power to create law, but somehow handed off this power to administrative agencies.
The EPA was proposed by Nixon BTW. The growth of the administrative state has been a bipartisan project.
There’s been a long simmering argument that granting federal agencies this power is very much illegal; Congress can’t decide to turn over the power to create law to these agencies.
This SCOTUS decision might be the first blow against the ever expanding power grab by unaccountable bureaucrats.
Kagan lacks basic comprehension and logic skills. All the court did was take away the power from unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats and place it the hands of elected, accountable legislators.
“What are these people going to do when weather trends revert
to cooling?”
We are just coming out of an ice age about ten thousand years ago.
We might not see one for many years to come, but what we will see is the earths cycle of extreme warm.
But, that does not mean we wont go into a another mini ice age for a couple hundred years.
The earths cycle is from one radical extreme to another-cold to hot and back again. In between its what I call the moderate time..short few thousand years of moderate climate.
Try and explain that to the wackos.
In 2020, China accounted for 70 percent of global solar cell production, with the United States accounting for 3 percent.
___________
The major reason for that is the Green new deal! There are no Green producers in Europe at all any more.
The reason: the solar cell manufacturing requires a lot of energy resources. So much that they barely return the energy during their lifetime.
But, China has a lot of cheap coal power plants. They can emit a lot of CO2.
Really, installing solar cells in the USA amounts to importing dirty coal electricity from China.
We exporting coal to China, getting solar cells from there.
But, somehow, the CO2 makes it back to us without even penny of shipping costs!
Biden,, you have a lot of smart people, maybe they can solve this problem?😜
I agree with you, and yeah, good luck.
Get shed of most of DC, problems solved
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