Supreme Court GUTS Democrat’s EPA Agenda In Surprise Ruling!
(RightWing.org) – The US Supreme Court’s yearly term lasts for one year, beginning the first Monday of October. It typically releases most of its rulings before going into its summer recess, starting on July 1. The nation’s highest court handed down its final decisions for the current session on Thursday, June 30, including an important case gutting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) power to regulate greenhouse emissions.
In a 6-to-3 decision, the Supreme Court adopted a narrow interpretation of the Clean Air Act to limit the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas (carbon) emissions from existing power plants in West Virginia v. EPA. The EPA created the Clean Power Plan rule using Section 111(d) of the act, which grants it the authority to “regulate emissions of non-criteria, non-hazardous air pollutants from stationary sources.”
BREAKING: Supreme Court says EPA does not have authority to set climate standards for power plants https://t.co/PAJ3BvH6nM
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) June 30, 2022
However, the court’s conservative justices ruled the EPA overstepped its authority when it directed coal-operated power plants to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions or subsidize alternative energy sources.
Chief Justice Roberts penned the majority opinion, invoking the controversial “major questions doctrine” to support the decision. That legal principle holds that regulatory agencies, like the EPA, must have clear Congressional authority to take action on issues of significant national importance.
Roberts wrote that “capping carbon dioxide emissions” would “force a nationwide transition” from coal-operated power plants, adding that it wasn’t “plausible” that Congress granted the EPA the authority to adopt “such a regulatory scheme” on its own.
The EPA adopted the Clean Power Plan rule in 2015 but never implemented it due to the immediate filing of court challenges.
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