US Supreme Court says EPA can’t regulate carbon pollution under Clean Air Act

The EPA does not have the authority to regulate carbon pollution from power plants according to a Supreme Court ruling.

The three liberal justices dissented from the 6-3 decision that made it more likely that an act of Congress will be required to regulate planet-warming emissions.

In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that Congress did not give the EPA authority to create emissions caps based on the generation shifting approach it took in the Clean Power Plan.

Congress tasked the EPA with balancing the many vital considerations of national policy with the basic regulation of how Americans get their energy, according to Roberts. There is no reason for Congress to have done that. He said that the decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation.

The dissenters argued that the EPA has clear authority in this case under the Clean Air Act.

Elena Kagan wrote that Congress charged the EPA with regulating fossil fuel-fired power plants. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to regulate stationary sources of any substance that causes or contributes significantly to air pollution. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.

The EPA's authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from existing coal- and natural-gas-fired power plants was challenged by the state of West Virginia. The rule would have forced states to cut carbon pollution before full force. The project was to cut carbon emissions by 32%.

The rule would create up to $46 billion in net benefits and up to $34 billion in health benefits according to the EPA.

The agency's assessment of the health impacts of pollution-mitigating policies was changed by the administration. The Clean Power Plan was not brought back to life by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Clean Power Plan hasn't been brought back by the Biden administration. The Supreme Court decision will likely change those plans.

The potential ramifications of the majority's decision was pointed out by the dissenter. Climate change is no longer subject to serious doubts. The emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide has warmed the atmosphere, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

She said that children born this year could live to see parts of the Eastern seaboard swallowed by the ocean. Mass migrations, civil unrest, and the failure of governments around the world could be caused by heat waves and storms. She said that by the end of the century there could be over four million deaths due to climate change-related causes.