Oct
Supreme Court Rules on Climate Change
On April two, in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at present possesses the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act and that it cannot evade its statutory responsibility to physical exercise that authority. The majority opinion written by Associate Justice John Paul Stevens resolved the issue of whether or not the EPA has authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. On account of that choice, the political and economic landscape has moved farther away from the scientific debate in a direction toward laying a framework for stemming greenhouse gas emissions.
In reaching the choice that the Clean Air Act authorized the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, the Supreme Court highlighted the Clean Air Act’s expansive language. It noted that the Clean Air Act declares, “The Administrator shall by regulation prescribe (and from time to time revise) in accordance with the provisions of this section, standards applicable to the emission of any air pollutant from any class or classes of new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines, which in his judgment trigger, or contribute to, air pollution which might reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare…”