The U.S. Supreme Court has placed limits on the federal government’s authority to issue sweeping regulations to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, in a ruling on Thursday that will undermine President Joe Biden’s plans to tackle the changes. climate change and which may constrain actions by various federal agencies on other issues.
The 6-3 decision restricts the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal and gas-fired power plants under an anti-pollution law known as the Air Act. Clean. The Biden administration is currently working on new regulations.
The court’s six Conservatives had a majority in the decision, reported by Chief Justice John Roberts, with the three Liberals disagreeing.
The EPA and the White House said government lawyers are reviewing the decision and looking for ways to address emissions under existing laws.
“President Biden will not relinquish using the authorities he has under the law to protect public health and address the climate change crisis,” a White House spokesperson said.
The decision is likely to have implications beyond the EPA, as it raises new legal questions about any major decisions made by federal agencies. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has signaled continued skepticism toward an expansive federal regulatory authority.
Conservative analysts have long advocated reducing the power of federal agencies in what has been called a “war on the administrative state.”
Judges overturned a 2021 District of Columbia Court of Appeal decision that had struck down the Affordable Clean Energy rule of former Republican President Donald Trump. That regulation, which the Biden administration said it had no intention of upholding, would place limits on a Clean Air Act provision called Section 111, which provides the EPA’s authority to regulate emissions from existing power plants.
The decision was based on what is called “major issues” legal doctrine, which requires explicit congressional authorization to act on issues of broad importance and social impact.
The court’s invocation of this doctrine sends a signal that judges will be a major obstacle to federal agencies seeking to implement broad policies of national importance.
A group of Republican-ruled states, led by major coal producer West Virginia, has asked the Supreme Court to limit the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey called the decision “a huge victory over federal oversight and administrative state excesses.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom said the Supreme Court “supported the fossil fuel industry, bringing the EPA’s basic ability to tackle climate change to its knees.”
The Biden administration wants the US energy sector to be decarbonized by 2035. The US, second only to China in greenhouse gas emissions, is a central player in efforts to combat climate change on a global basis.
