EPA Called On The Carpet By Justice Scalia

Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Most EPA Emission Controls

On Monday, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled it permissible for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require greenhouse-gas controls on power plants and other large, stationary sources of pollution. However, the high court also ruled the EPA had been too aggressive in its methodology.

The court’s divided decision, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, is in essence an attempt to find middle-ground as a way to resolve the case. It may, in fact, have only miniscule impact on the Obama administration’s current regulations, which require the use of greenhouse-gas controls, at power plants and other major emissions sources, when modifications are made or new facilities are constructed.

The EPA was taken to task by Justice Scalia for being so bold as to rewrite a clean-air permitting program which was established by Congress. The program stipulates that large emitters of certain pollutants must obtain permits prior to modernization or expansion. These facilities are required to limit emissions by utilizing the “best available” technologies.  Bloomberg’s Yang Yang reports:

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