The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Texas’ challenge of federal regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources like power plants and factories, the court announced Tuesday. But it declined to hear the state’s appeals of two other decisions, effectively upholding rules that limit such emissions from vehicles and maintaining the Environmental Protection Agency’s assertion that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.
Federal judges had previously knocked down efforts by Texas and several other states, along with powerful industry coalitions, to challenge the EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Should the Supreme Court justices determine otherwise after hearing oral arguments next year, there could be severe implications for rules limiting emissions from big power plants and other facilities. The EPA recently proposed rules to limit carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants, prompting critics to accuse the agency of trying to destroy the coal industry and economy while drawing praise from environmental advocates.
At issue is whether the EPA can use the Clean Air Act, which gives it the authority to regulate emissions of toxic air pollutants and to limit emissions of greenhouse gases as well. In 2007, the court had ruled in the landmark case Massachusetts v. EPA that the EPA could do so for motor vehicles, which has led to stringent fuel-efficiency requirements for cars.
But Texas, joined by Mississippi and industry coalitions including the American Petroleum Institute, is arguing that the Clean Air Act was never meant to apply to anything other than air pollutants, because greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane “[do] not deteriorate the quality of the air that people breathe.” Attorneys representing the groups added that “carbon dioxide is virtually everywhere and in everything,” and called the EPA’s proposed regulations of greenhouse gases “absurd.”
Of the nine petitions the group of states and industry leaders had filed to the Supreme Court regarding its challenge of climate change rules, the justices agreed to hear six, but only want to consider one question: “Whether EPA permissibly determined that its regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles triggered permitting requirements under the Clean Air Act for stationary sources that emit greenhouse gases.”
I’ve kind of lost track of which lawsuit is which since there have been so many, but this was the most recent appeals court ruling, which went against Texas. SCOTUS has also agreed to hear an appeal of the CSAPR ruling, which went against the Obama administration. The consensus seems to be that this is a fairly narrow issue for SCOTUS to rule on and that the EPA should be on solid footing, but you never know. See Wonkblog, SCOTUSBlog, TPM, and the NRDC blog for more in depth analysis of this.
So, Abbott sued Obama, went home, and lost 2 of 3. Including having lost most of that already at the appellate court, and not taking no for an answer.
As I note on my blog, this is a big opening for Davis to portray herself as the real “fiscal conservative” vs. the state’s money-waster in chief. Will she pick up the opening?