Very conservative Supreme Court USA on Thursday limited federal funds to fight global warmingin a ruling that could further complicate the White House’s regulatory efforts.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot introduce general rules to regulate emissions from coal-fired power plants, which produce almost 20% of the country’s electricity. USA.
The White House immediately condemned the “devastating” decision and called on Congress to “put USA on the way to a cleaner and safer energy future”.
The verdict was accepted by six conservative magistrates of the court.
“Setting a carbon cap at a level that would require a national phase-out of coal-fired power generation could be a suitable solution to the current crisis. Justice John Roberts wrote on behalf of the conservative majority.
But three of his progressive colleagues distanced themselves from the decision, which they considered “terrifying.”
“The court has stripped the EPA of the authority that Congress gave it to respond to “the most pressing issue of our time,” Judge Elena Kagan wrote, recalling that over the past decade, the country has known six of the warmest years in its history.
“On Fire”
Reflecting divisions in American society on environmental issues, the decision was immediately endorsed by the Republican Party, which is hostile to any federal regulation and supporter of fossil fuels.
“Today, the Supreme Court is returning power to the people,” Senate leader Mitch McConnell said, criticizing Democratic President Joe Biden for “waging war on cheap energy” despite inflation.
But Democrats like young MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called the decision “catastrophic.”
“Our planet is on fire, and this extremist Supreme Court is destroying the federal government’s ability to fight back,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Alarmed environmental organizations have highlighted the widening gap between the United States and the rest of the world.
The decision could leave “the United States far behind (its) international partners as they step up efforts to meet their climate commitments,” said Nathaniel Keohane, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.
other agencies
Following his decision on abortion last week, the decision marks another change in the course of the Supreme Court.
In 2007, the highest court narrowly ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency has the power to regulate emissions of gases responsible for global warming, just as a 1960s law gives it the power to limit air pollution.
But that all changed after former Republican President Donald Trump, skeptical of climate change and hostile to any mandatory action on the industry, appointed three judges to the court who bolstered the body’s current solid conservative majority.
In addition to the EPA, this decision could limit the efforts of all federal regulators, including Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA).
“The court has taken steps to control the EPA, as well as all administrative agencies,” Ilya Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, analyzed on Twitter.
According to him, “the Court simply refused the executive body to decide that it had jurisdiction.”
Democrats fear some ordinances will be repealed in the coming months.
This “reactionary and extremist” court “takes the country back to a time when the sharks of industry had all the power,” lamented Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Time is over
The file on which the Supreme Court’s decision is based has its origins in the ambitious “Clean Energy Plan” to reduce CO2 emissions, which was entrusted to the EPA, but the project was blocked before it could be implemented.
In 2019, Donald Trump published his own “Affordable Clean Energy Rule”, limiting the scope of the EPA’s action, which made it impossible to reconstruct the power generation network.
After a federal court invalidated that version, several conservative states and the coal industry petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene and clarify the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency. Democrat Joe Biden’s government has made it clear that it does not intend to revive Barack Obama’s plan, so it asked the Supreme Court to declare the case null and void.
(AFP)
Source: RPP
I’m Liza Grey, an experienced news writer and author at the Buna Times. I specialize in writing about economic issues, with a focus on uncovering stories that have a positive impact on society. With over seven years of experience in the news industry, I am highly knowledgeable about current events and the ways in which they affect our daily lives.