There was a time when our air, at least in areas, was so polluted that it was nearly impossible to breathe. Our rivers and lakes were poisoned to the point of being devoid of life and even catching fire. President Richard Nixon and Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 to regulate industry such that the environment was protected. The EPA’s charter has been upheld by the Supreme Court on multiple occasions. The Supreme Court has even upheld the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. Such protection is crucial to our ability to control such pollution.
Now, the activist and highly political Supreme Court has reversed itself once again. Its decision on West Virginia v. EPA limits the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. The Supreme Court sided with the fossil fuel industry to strip the EPA of the power to do its job: protecting our people and the environment from the growing climate crisis. By limiting the EPA’s authority to regulate pollution from the energy sector (the sector is responsible for over a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions), the Supreme Court is putting our environment, our climate, and our health in increasing danger.
The court’s conservative majority explains their activism by referring to the EPA as the “Administrative State.” Okay, yes, their job, as defined by Congress, is to regulate polluters. The term is accurate, even if it is used in a pejorative way. More important are the words of Justice Elena Kagan: “Whatever else this Court may know about, it does not have a clue about how to address climate change. And let’s say the obvious: The stakes here are high. Yet the Court today prevents congressionally authorized agency action to curb power plants’ carbon dioxide emissions.” Kagan also called out the court for designating itself as the rule-maker for such policies. “The Court appoints itself—instead of Congress or the expert agency—the decision-maker on climate policy. I cannot think of many things more frightening.”
Polluters can now join the Religious Right and the Gun Lobby; their bought and paid for Supreme Court is doing their bidding now as well. The “Administrative State” has kept our air and water relatively clean, and it has helped us fight the pollution that causes climate change. Until now.
