A step back in our climate change effort

The conservative Republican agenda continues to rip through American legal fabric. Just after the overturn of the 1973 decision of Roe vs. Wade (which legalized abortion in America), the American Supreme Court ruled anew to effectively clip the powers of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Why is this relevant to us? The EPA was established in 1970 by then US president Richard Nixon to manage greenhouse gas emissions. The decision of the Supreme Court stripped the EPA of its power to regulate emissions from fossil fuel power plants and to mandate (or expedite) the shift of America’s power source mix from fossil fuel to renewable energy. In other words, the EPA can no longer enforce climate change action on the power industry. The Supreme Court effectively took away America’s most effective tool to mitigate climate change.

America is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, spewing 4.745 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases into our atmosphere every year (data from 2019). For context, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases is China, who dumps 9.877 billion metric tons into the atmosphere, while the Philippines is responsible for only 135.3 million metric tons.

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling allows coal fired power plants in America to operate unhampered and without consequence.

The lawsuit was filed by Republican states, led by West Virginia, a coal producing state. While Republicans celebrate the Supreme Court decision, environmental groups, including those in the Philippines, are expressing exasperation. Coal-fired power plants account for 25 percent of American greenhouse gas emissions.

The United Nations expressed serious concern since the Supreme Court’s decision will make it harder to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. For those unaware, the goal of the Paris Agreement is to limit the increase of global temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius.

To exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold will trigger changes in the planet’s atmospheric balance and this could be fatal to all life forms. Time is ticking and we are already feeling the consequences of climate change. In America and Europe, extreme blizzards, frequent forest fires and severe droughts have become a natural occurrence. In tropical countries like the Philippines, frequent and increasingly violent typhoons, higher sea levels and storm surges have become annual tragedies. The UN has declared the Supreme Court decision a step back in human survival with worldwide repercussions.

But the decision is a vindication for Donald Trump. It will be recalled that in 2021, the US Court of Appeals struck down Donald Trump’s Affordable Clean Energy rule. That rule would have imposed limits on a Clean Air Act provision that provides the EPA authority to regulate emissions from existing power plants. With this decision, Trump finally got his way. Curiously, three of the nine Supreme Court members are Trump nominees.

The ruling of the Supreme Court was based on what is called the “Major Questions Doctrine.” In essence, the doctrine dictates that federal agencies, like the EPA, cannot implement policies of great importance and social impact without the express consent of Congress. The fact that the EPA continues to regulate the emissions of coal power plants and the power industry as a whole, without a congressional mandate, makes it illegal, they argue.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, called the ruling “a huge victory against federal overreach and excess of administrative state.”

The majority of Republicans do not consider climate change an issue urgent enough to cull the coal industry. The Pew Research Center says that Democrats are more than three times as likely as Republicans to say that dealing with climate change should be a top priority (78 percent vs. 21 percent). Less than a third of registered Republicans nationwide said that climate change is caused mostly by human activities – the greater majority claim that it is a natural phenomenon.

Politically, this is a defeat for US President Joe Biden, who intended to lead the world in climate change mitigation. Not only is his multi-billion package of climate change investments stuck in Congress, now the EPA is de-fanged. It is a defeat for both the democratic agenda and environmentalists.

President Biden called the ruling “another devastating decision that aims to take our country backwards. While this decision risks damaging our nation’s ability to keep our air clean and combat climate change, I will not relent in using my lawful authorities to protect public health and tackle the climate crisis.”

Biden subsequently directed his legal team to work with the Justice Department to review the ruling and find ways under federal law to protect against pollution, including emissions that cause climate change. It is still unclear how the Biden administration can regain regulatory sway over the coal industry.

Invoking the Major Questions Doctrine was rarely argued in court until recently. But this is a precedent that opens the way for other lawsuits meant to question other regulatory powers of the US Federal government. Many suspect that the Clean Water Act will be next to be questioned. The same for No Vaccine Mandate and Same-Sex Marriages. Clearly, the US Supreme Court is leading America back to conservatism according to the Republican agenda.

No matter what direction the political winds blow, no one can deny that the planet is deteriorating towards a dangerous path as humans continue to burn fossil fuels at an alarming rate. This is a huge step back for America, for the world and for humanity. We can only hope that President Biden finds legal ways to mitigate if not eliminate the use of fossil fuel power in his own backyard.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aj_masigan.