At a moment when the world should be racing to prevent the worst effects of global warming, the Supreme Court just made it harder for the U.S. to cut carbon emissions from power plants quickly and cost-effectively.
In yet another ruling this session that upended norms, the court said in its 6-3 decision Thursday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority in trying to develop sweeping regulations to reduce climate-warming pollutants.
To be clear, the ruling didn’t remove the EPA’s authority to cut carbon emissions from individual power plants, which are responsible for about a quarter of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. The agency still can — and should — require that power plants install equipment that can ratchet down pollution. But the decision limits the EPA’s ability to enact more far-reaching and creative regulatory programs affecting the power sector, such as a nationwide carbon cap-and-trade system similar to California’s that some power industry and business groups have supported as more flexible compliance models.
