Supreme Court ruling guts the EPA’s ability to enforce Clean Air Act

The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled along ideological lines to severely limit the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency in regulating carbon emissions from power plants, further limiting the ability of the Biden administration to fight global warming.

The case centered on whether the Clean Air Act gives the EPA the power to issue regulations for the power industry.

The court held that Congress has the power to regulate emissions. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from coal to generate electricity may be a sensible solution to the crisis of the day. It's not plausible that Congress gave the EPA the authority to adopt on its own. It's up to Congress or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that body to make such a huge decision.

The right-wing activist court is hard on the heels of snatching away fundamental liberties. The EPA can still limit greenhouse gases at the source under the Clean Air Act, even though it is a bad decision. The EPA needs to use its remaining authority to the fullest.

The case grew out of the Trump administration's efforts to relax carbon emission regulations from power plants, which it called theAffordable Clean Energy Rule. A divided three-judge appeals court struck down the rule on Trump's last full day as president, noting that it was based on a fundamental misconstruction of the CAA and gleaned only through a series of misreadings.

TheAffordable Clean Energy Rule would have replaced the Clean Power Plan of 2015, which would have forced the energy industry further away from coal power. The Supreme Court blocked the rule in 2016 due to a number of lawsuits from conservative states and the coal industry.

The appeals court stated that the E.P.A. has the ability to carry out its mandate. It may not shirk its responsibility by imagining new limitations that the statute does not require.

The decision doesn't just affect the EPA's ability to do its job, from limiting emissions from specific power plants to operating the existing cap-and-trade carbon offset policy, it also hints at what the court's conservative majority may be planning to do. The court blocked eviction moratoriums enacted by the CDC and told OSHA that it couldn't require vaccinations for large companies. The court gutted our Miranda Rights and further stripped Native American tribes of their sovereignty after declaring states incapable of regulating their own gun laws.

The EPA's power to respond to the most pressing environmental challenge of our time was taken away by the court today. The three justices dissented in her opinion.