Supreme Court Kneecaps EPA

By FRANK LINGO

The Supreme Court continued its assault on the laws and the constitution of the United States with its June 30 ruling that limits the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate emissions from power plants.

The extreme conservative majority voted 6-3, claiming that the EPA, being an executive branch, doesn’t have the authority required from Congress to enforce the federal statutes.

What part of “Protection” in Environmental Protection Agency don’t they get? Is the EPA just supposed to ask nicely for the coal plants to stop destroying our atmosphere?

Columnist George Will welcomed the Court’s decision and stated that “the agency is illegitimately lunging beyond its law enforcement function.” But Will noted that the Clean Air Act authorizes the EPA to impose “the best system for carbon reduction.”

That sure sounds like a mandate from Congress, which passed the law half a century ago. But to put Will’s views into context, he has long been a climate crisis denier, so he would approve any action that keeps the climate status quo intact. It’s a pity when an intellect like Will uses his gift to deny the science of nearly every climate scientist in the world. A sign of wisdom is to realize what you don’t know.

Back in the mythical days of the 1970s when Republican politicians worked for environmental reforms and unicorns roamed the Earth, both parties collaborated in Congress to pass the Clean Air Act and created the EPA specifically to do this job. And for a while, air quality did improve. One giant advance was the requirement for motor vehicles to have catalytic converters, which decreased output of carbon monoxide by an estimated 97%.

Then in the 1980s came President Reagan, acting the amiable outdoorsman, whose EPA Director Anne Gorsuch (mother of Justice Neil Gorsuch) neglected the mission of protecting the outdoors — the EPA’s mandate. Ms. Gorsuch slashed the agency’s budget and alienated its scientists before resigning her post under a cloud of suspicion for mismanagement.

By the 1990’s and ever since, the fossil fuel industry has contributed copious campaign cash upon politicians from both parties, but much more to Republicans, who have bowed in submission to the polluters. The result has been little legislation passed, and erratic enforcement by the EPA of the laws we do have.

So now what does this West Virginia vs. EPA decision change? The truth is the EPA has never actually enforced the restrictions of power plant emissions even though it should have.

Apparently, West Virginia brought the lawsuit to make sure the federal government could not impose regulations upon a state’s energy policy. But the EPA could and should compel states to phase out coal-burning in favor of renewables like wind and solar. How else will we cut our carbon creation and curtail the catastrophic consequences of the climate crisis?

So in a unicorn scenario where the EPA tries to prevent a state’s polluters from damaging our universally shared air and water (which have no state or national boundary) for public safety, the Supreme Court has made sure that such enforcement will be harder than ever.

This reinforces a long trend of the United States talking a big game about climate in geopolitical conferences while taking little action at home to change its ways. In aggregate, the US has been the biggest carbon emitter in world history. That behooves us to enact big reforms, which so far have mostly been theoretical. We Americans often suggest other countries should make changes, while we don’t follow our own advice.

With the presidency and both houses of Congress controlled by Democrats, they should have had far-reaching climate bills pass and become law. They haven’t gotten it done and that window is closing as the mid-term elections put the Democrats’ majority in jeopardy. No excuse about West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin will do. They must work out a deal.

As for the entire country, how about we put out less hot air and create some cool solutions to our humongous carbon output while there’s still a chance to save the Earth from at least some of the disastrous effects we’ve caused?

Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.” Email: lingofrank@gmail.com. See www.greenbeat.world

From The Progressive Populist, August 1, 2022

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