America’s Supreme Court is considering how robust a role the Environmental Protection Agency has in reducing carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act, a landmark pollution-control law passed in 1963
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskThe justices spent little time taking stock of the future of the planet. Instead, the discussion inmay reduce emissions only by regulating techniques and technologies inside power plants—as the Trump administration believed—or if it may take a broader approach, including policies to shift to cleaner energy sources.
The bulk of the hearing was devoted to parsing the Clean Air Act to determine what Congress empowered theto do. When the law refers to the “best system of emission reduction”, Justice Stephen Breyer asked, isn’t that an invitation to a more systemic approach than just plant-by-plant regulation? Justice Elena Kagan questioned the logic of distinguishing between inside and outside power plants.
Justice Samuel Alito voiced the same concern, with a hint of dubiousness about the threat of climate change. Some people, he said, believe the climate crisis “is a matter of civilisational survival”.
Concerns about federal agencies growing too big for their statutory britches have animated several recent Supreme Court judgments on policies prompted by the pandemic. Last August a 6-3 majority ended Mr Biden’s home-eviction moratorium, finding little connection between the mission of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the rental market.
The Biden administration seems headed for another defeat when a ruling comes this spring. The question is how sweepingly the Supreme Court will constrain agencies—and whether the
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