The Supreme Court on Thursday sharply curtailed the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon pollution from electric utilities, dealing a blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to rein in climate change as scientists warn greenhouse gases are accumulating at a perilous pace.
The ruling came on the final day of the court’s term, a day before a holiday weekend and weeks after scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas responsible for warming Earth, hit an all-time high of 421 parts per million.
In a 6-3 vote, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. writing for the majority, the court ruled that the EPA does not have authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate climate-warming emissions from the power sector by devising a system to cap emissions because Congress did not specifically authorize it to do so.
