U.S. Supreme Court Chooses Coal Over Climate Change

In a Supreme Court ruling today, its justices ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not have authority to regulate the coal industry in its efforts to address global warming. In the case West Virginia v. EPA, the ruling noted that the powers granted the Agency under the Clean Air Act ran counter to the right of the power sector to continue to light and heat homes using coal. This fuel is known to be a significant contributor to greenhouse gasses (GHG) responsible for atmospheric warming.

The Court ruling in a 6 to 3 vote stated that the EPA’s authority was limited in setting GHG emissions standards for power plants. For the environmental movement, the ruling is as devastating as the ruling last week to reverse a woman’s right to choose in Roe v. Wade.

The U.S. is the second-largest producer of GHGs. Only China puts more pollution into the atmosphere. The U.S. government is also committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The justices on the Supreme Court breathe the same air as all of us but feel that coal-fired power plants, and coal producers have a right to pollute.

John Roberts, the Chief Justice, in the ruling who wrote the opinion for the majority noted that the role to regulate doesn’t belong to the EPA, but rather to Congress. He states:

“Congress implicitly tasked it, and it alone, with balancing the many vital considerations of national policy implicated in deciding how Americans will get their energy. Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible solution to the crisis of the day but it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt its own such a regulatory scheme.” 

The ruling puts the ball back in Congress to act.

The dissenting opinion written by Justice Elena Kagan stated that the EPA had already been given the power by Congress to address “the most pressing environmental challenge of our time.” She went further saying that in this decision it is the Supreme Court that has appointed itself as “the decisionmaker on climate policy,” and went further stating “I cannot think of many things more frightening.”

Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader described the ruling as one that tarnishes public confidence in the Court, “setting America back decades, if not centuries.” He continued, noting that the Court ruling pushes us back to the time when robber barons and corporate elites held power and average citizens had no say.

The case for coal was argued by Republican attorneys representing West Virginia, and major coal companies operating in that state. The ruling effectively blocks the EPA from putting a price on carbon pollution, or a cap on production.

Without immediate action by the US Congress which is highly unlikely because of Republican filibustering, no new legislation will pass both the House and Senate. Who are the victims of this unprincipled ruling? They are both the youth and the flora and fauna of this planet who will inherit a warming world and its consequences. All of them have no say as to what will be their future.

Immoral, unethical, and perverse are three words to describe the ruling the Supreme Court delivered to our planet on this day.