Supreme Court Upholds EPA Cross-State Air Pollution Rules
The Hill : “The Supreme Court in a 6-2 decision Tuesday upheld a rule that allows the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air pollution from power plants that crosses state lines, handing a major victory to President Obama.”
The rule “requires 28 states in the East, Midwest, and South to cut back on sulfur and nitrogen emissions from coal-fired power plants that ‘contribute significantly’ to air problems in other states.
“By ruling that the EPA maintains authority to regulate nitrogen and sulfur emissions from coal plants, the justices raised the bar for the legal challenges that will likely be filed against the administration’s proposals to regulate carbon emissions from new and existing coal-fired power plants.”
New York Times Editorial Board: “It isn’t technologically possible to determine exactly how much pollution each state contributes to any other state … Given this reality, and the broad language of the Clean Air Act, the court was right to defer to the agency’s expertise to manage a hugely complex national problem, and to protect human health and the environment at the lowest cost.”
