The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday the Environmental Protection Agency lacks authority to broadly regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants, siding with a group of Republican attorneys general and coal companies in a major blow to the executive branch’s power to curb climate change.
The opinion was a victory for the Republican-led states that undertook the challenge, West Virginia and 18 others — including Alaska, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska and Ohio — and curbs President Joe Biden’s ability to pursue his climate goals.
In the 6-3 decision, the court’s conservatives ruled that Congress only empowered the EPA to narrowly regulate the emissions of individual power plants, and the EPA could not require a sweeping industry-wide shift from coal and gas power to renewable sources.
A 2015 Obama administration rule — which never went into effect — exceeded the agency’s authority, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.
The agency used a little-known provision of the Clean Air Act known as Section 111 to “discover” the power to broadly regulate coal- and gas-fired power plants, Roberts wrote.
“The agency’s discovery allowed it to adopt a regulatory program that Congress had conspicuously and repeatedly declined to enact itself,” he said.
Kagan, liberals dissent
In a dissent written by Justice Elena Kagan, the court’s three liberals said the decision strips the executive branch agency charged with environmental regulation of its power to respond to the most urgent environmental issue the world faces. Executive branch agencies can use broad authorizing language to address significant issues, the liberals said.
The majority’s decision rested on the sole claim that the EPA requiring a shift from coal and gas power to renewable sources of energy was too large a policy change to be authorized by general language in the law, Kagan wrote.
“But that is wrong,” she wrote. “A key reason Congress makes broad delegations like Section 111 is so an agency can respond, appropriately and commensurately, to new and big problems.”
Congress delegates the power to expert agencies to address issues as they arise, which is what Congress did in the broad provision of the Clean Air Act the EPA used to establish the Clean Power Plan, she said.
“The majority today overrides that legislative choice,” the dissent reads. “In so doing, it deprives EPA of the power needed — and the power granted — to curb the emission of greenhouse gases.”
Biden pledges action
In a statement, Biden slammed the decision and said he directed his legal team to work with the Justice Department and other agencies to find other ways to reduce climate change.
The ruling was “another devastating decision that aims to take our country backwards,” he said.
“I will take action,” Biden said. “My administration will continue using lawful executive authority, including the EPA’s legally-upheld authorities, to keep our air clean, protect public health, and tackle the climate crisis.”
The administration will work with states and local governments and pursue congressional action to move toward clean energy, he added.
‘A shot across the bow’
But the ruling threatens Biden’s goal, codified in an executive order in December 2021, to reach a zero-carbon electricity sector by 2035, Emily Schiller, a lawyer who heads Holland & Hart’s environmental resources practice group and represented power producers who challenged the rule, said Thursday.
“This rule is a big part of Biden’s drive towards clean energy by 2035,” Schiller said. “Now they are going to get substantially fewer reductions from this type of rulemaking than they had planned.”
The EPA can still regulate greenhouse gas emissions after the ruling, but only by setting standards that are realistic for specific producers to meet without…
Read More: U.S. Supreme Court curbs federal power to regulate greenhouse gases, in blow to Biden