Washington, July 1 (Bureau) In a landmark ruling the US Supreme Court restricted some of the powers of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, BBC reported on Friday. This ruling represents a major setback to President Joe Biden’s climate plans, who termed it a “devastating decision” but said it would not undermine his effort to tackle the climate crisis.
The case against the EPA was brought by West Virginia on behalf of 18 other mostly Republican-led states and some of the nation’s largest coal companies, who argued that the agency did not have the authority to limit emissions across entire states, worried their power sectors would be forced to move away from using coal, at a severe economic cost.In a 6-3 ruling, the court sided with the conservative states and fossil-fuel companies, agreeing that the EPA did not have the authority to impose such sweeping measures.The court hasn’t completely prevented the EPA from making these regulations in the future – but says that Congress would have to clearly say it authorises this power. And Congress has previously rejected the EPA’s proposed carbon limiting programmes. Environmental groups will be deeply concerned by the outcome as historically the 19 states that brought the case have made little progress on reducing their emissions – which is necessary to limit climate change. The states made up 44 per cent of the US emissions in 2018, and since 2000 have only achieved a 7 per cent reduction in their emissions on average.