The Supreme Court hits Biden again by limiting his powers in the fight against climate change

New slap from the Supreme Court of the United States to President Joe Biden.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
30 June 2022 Thursday 22:57
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The Supreme Court hits Biden again by limiting his powers in the fight against climate change

New slap from the Supreme Court of the United States to President Joe Biden. Just a week after suppressing the right to abortion defended by the Democrats, the country's High Court issued a ruling on Thursday that substantially restricts the powers of the US government in the fight against climate change.

It is a blow against Biden's environmental agenda, one of his priorities as president but also one of his key commitments as an aspiring global leader in the battle for a sustainable present and a possible future.

The 6-3 conservative majority that governs the country's highest judicial body established, specifically, that the Clean Air Act does not give the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants -especially CO2- that contribute to global warming.

The resolution does not completely remove the agency's ability to regulate the energy sector. The EPA will be able to continue to control gas emissions at individual power plants. But you will not be able to establish general rules on emission maximums.

"Limiting carbon dioxide emissions to a level that forces a transition away from the use of coal in electricity generation can be a 'sensible solution to the crisis of the moment", recognized with reference to a previous case the rapporteur of the sentence and president of the Supreme Court, John Roberts. But immediately afterwards he specified: "It is not plausible to maintain that Congress gave the EPA the authority to be able to adopt such a regulatory scheme on its own." Because "a decision of such magnitude and consequences must fall to Congress itself or to an agency that acts by virtue of a clear delegation from that representative body."

The three magistrates of the progressive minority, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, issued a dissenting opinion of dramatic overtones but adjusted to the importance of the matter: “Today, the Supreme Court has stripped the Environmental Protection Agency of the power that the Congress granted it to respond to the most pressing environmental challenge of our time”, they headed their writing.

With a presentation by Elena Kagan, the three dissenters added: “Regardless of the knowledge that this court may know, the truth is that it has no idea how to address climate change. And let's state the obvious: The stakes are high here. But the court now prevents the agency authorized by Congress to curb CO2 emissions from acting and appoints itself, rather than Congress or experts, as the one making decisions on climate policy. We cannot imagine many more terrifying things. And we respectfully disagree."

Biden declared months ago the "red code for humanity" for climate change. And he has repeatedly promised that by the year 2030 greenhouse gas emissions from the United States - 14% of the planet's total - will be reduced by 50% compared to 2005. But he has more and more difficult to fulfill.

The US president's plans in this area have already suffered a major setback with the rejection last year, by Republican parliamentarians but also by Democratic senator Joe Manchin, of his ambitious plan for social and environmental spending. The program went from an initial budget of 3.5 billion to a projection of less than 2 billion, and even then it was stranded. It will be difficult to revive it before the legislative elections in November. And if Democrats then lose their slim House majority, the plan may die.