Supreme Court Justices Limit EPA Regulation Policies on Greenhouse Gas Emissions
On Monday, the Supreme Court limited how the Environmental Protection Agency can deal with greenhouse gas emissions.
In the 5-4 ruling, the high court said the EPA lacks the authority in some cases to force companies to evaluate ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, USA Today reported. The justices said the EPA cannot require permits for greenhouse gas emissions from industrial facilities seeking to expand their facilities or build new ones that would increase overall production of carbon dioxide, which is linked to global warming.
Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion states that the EPA was overreaching its authority by changing the emissions threshold for greenhouse gases in the Clean Air Act of 1970 to regulate more stationary sources. He wrote that only Congress can do that.
"An agency has no power to 'tailor' legislation to bureaucratic policy goals by rewriting unambiguous statutory terms," Scalia wrote, The New York Times reported.
But the ruling won't prohibit the EPA from regulating the pollutant in other ways.
Scalia said the ruling favors the EPA.
The "EPA is getting almost everything it wanted in this case," Scalia said, writing on behalf of the majority. "It sought to regulate sources it said were responsible for 86 percent of all the greenhouse gases emitted from stationary sources nationwide. Under our holdings, EPA will be able to regulate sources responsible for 83 percent of those emissions."
The court said the EPA can regulate greenhouse gas emissions from industries already required to get permits for pollutants other than greenhouse gases.
The agency expressed satisfaction with the ruling. "The Supreme Court's decision is a win for our efforts to reduce carbon pollution because it allows EPA, states and other permitting authorities to continue to require carbon pollution limits in permits for the largest pollution sources," the agency said in a statement.
The decision does not affect the EPA's new proposal to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by almost 30 percent by 2030. If passed, the initiative would be one of the strongest actions the United States has ever taken to combat climate change.
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