Why the Supreme Court’s decision against the EPA and the climate is so recklessly dangerous

On June 30, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court slashed EPA’s power to protect the climate from power plant emissions.  People who care about the climate — and people who care about the environment — and people who care about the government’s responsibility to protect us effectively from big business’s abuses — expressed alarm.  BELOW I’M PROVIDING LINKS TO A FEW ARTICLES ABOUT WHAT THE COURT’S DECISION MEANS.

 

HERE IS WHY THE SUPREME COURT’S DECISION IS SO RECKLESSLY DANGEROUS:

“We the People” create government to protect our “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.”  Big business has a very different goal:  escalating profits regardless of the damage they cause.

When Congress functions effectively (without the corruption caused by Big Money donations to election campaigns and aggressive lobbying), Congress passes laws to protect the public from dangerous products, abusive business practices, etc., — and protects the environment and climate from all sorts of abuses.

Protecting us includes a great many technical details.  These are so numerous and so detailed — and so ever-changing — that Congress could not possibly write all of those technical details into the laws it passes.  So Congress has created federal agencies (such as the Environmental Protection Agency half a century ago) and empowered those agencies to research, develop, and adopt rules to carry out Congress’s intention.

On June 30, 2022, the Republican-dominated U.S. Supreme Court imposed its extremist right-wing ideology upon our nation by SHARPLY LIMITING the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate climate-disrupting emissions from power plants.

The Court’s reasoning goes far beyond its deliberate contempt for the climate.  It seems likely to be intended to unleash a new era of reckless and dangerous deregulation that will prevent the government from protecting all people and our environment in a great many ways.

 

Here are some articles about this:

An article posted June 30, 2022, ran this headline:  US Supreme Court Drops Carbon Bomb on the Planet

Here is the article:  https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/30/us-supreme-court-drops-carbon-bomb-planet

 

 

This article from June 30, 2022, ran this headline:  “The Supreme Court Limits the EPA’s Ability to Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions”

Here is the article:  https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/06/west-virginia-v-epa-supreme-court/

 

 

Another article from June 30, 2022, ran this headline:  Supreme Court Curbs EPA’s Power to Limit Climate-Warming Emissions

Here is the article:  https://truthout.org/articles/sweeping-supreme-court-ruling-curbs-epas-power-to-limit-carbon-emissions/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=804fbf24-9b4d-4196-85c0-86d77ea4a1a8

 

 

On June 30, 2022, environmentalists who care about the Columbia River denounced the Court’s decision as a “gift to fossil fuel polluters” and posted this article, which also includes quotations from Oregon’s Governor and Attorney General about their commitment to protecting the climate:

https://www.opb.org/article/2022/06/30/us-supreme-court-opinions-epa-ruling-clean-air-act-oregon-climate-change/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=a846ac63-9d74-4e3b-abcb-aba2764f5eea

 

 

On June 30, 2022, an environmental news source posted this article:  Supreme Court Restricts EPA’s Ability to Fight Climate Crisis

Here is the article:  https://www.ecowatch.com/supreme-court-epa-climate-crisis.html

 

 

On July 1, 2022, an article ran this headline:  The Supreme Court has curtailed EPA’s power to regulate Carbon Pollution – and sent a Warning to other Regulators

Here is the article:  https://www.juancole.com/2022/07/curtailed-pollution-regulators.html

 

 

On July 1, 2022, Democracy Now! reported on this:  “In Radical Ruling, Supreme Court Limits EPA’s Power to Cut Carbon Emissions & Combat Climate Crisis”

Here is a summary of their article, which I’m linking below:  “In a blow to climate activism, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled to severely limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to place emission caps on power plants. In the case, West Virginia v. EPA, several states led by West Virginia and fossil fuel companies fought against the regulations imposed by the Obama administration under the Clean Air Act. The 6-3 ruling by the court’s conservative justices ultimately weakens the federal agency’s authority to limit carbon emissions and combat the worst effects of the climate crisis.”

https://www.democracynow.org/2022/7/1/scotus_limits_epa_authority_mustafa_ali

 

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1498 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org