6/29/22 | Central Washington Sentinel | Reposted from
(The Center Square) – Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee and several Democratic lawmakers lambasted Thursday morning’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court significantly limiting the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate emissions from power plants.
In its 6-3 decision in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, the nation’s highest court said the EPA lacks the broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act.
“Congress did not grant the EPA…the authority to devise emissions caps based on the generations shifting approach the Agency took in the Clean Power Plan,” the court said.
At issue in the case was language in the Clean Air Act that lets the EPA regulate power plants using a “best system of emissions reduction” and what specifically that system can entail.
The court ruled use of the Clean Power Plan – an Obama administration policy gutted by the Trump administration – to move away from carbon-intensive coal plants and toward natural gas and renewables did not qualify.
Inslee slammed the decision at a same-day virtual news conference.
“This decision in the West Virginia case this morning essentially kneecapped the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to restrain pollution from these coal-fired plants,” the governor said.
Inslee, whose signature issue is combatting climate change, went on to condemn the decision as a “stunning reversal of environmental laws in the United States” that “took a wrecking ball to the ability of the federal government to restrain pollution.”
Frequently citing “dirty gas,” the governor said that in the absence of federal action, the state must redouble its efforts to reduce pollution as part of the fight against climate change, “which means more of that burden will be on our shoulders.”
Inslee continued, “And we are willing to accept that because Washington state is not going to allow climate change to swallow our state.”
The dangers of climate change, according to Inslee, are forest fires polluting the air with smoke, too-hot water endangering salmon runs, and an increase in respiratory disease among young people.
Ongoing efforts in the Evergreen State like the Climate Commitment Act and Clean Fuel Standard, as well as plans to shut down the TransAlta coal-fired power plant in Centralia by 2025 will continue, Inslee said.
Democratic legislators backed up Inslee’s take.
Retiring state Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, characterized the Supreme Court’s decision as political.
“I think we all have to acknowledge that it is extremely difficult not to see this Supreme Court ruling as anything other than ideological versus legal,” he said. “It is a pretty jolting reality check that it seems like the goal itself is to eviscerate the ability of the EPA to implement enterprise-wide or system-wide or nationwide policies.”
State Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Burien, referenced last summer’s record-breaking heat in the Pacific Northwest in making his case against the Supreme Court’s decision.
“So, you know, just about a year out – nearly a year out from that event – we have the Supreme Court kneecapping the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from the power sector,” he said.
State Rep. Davina Duerr, D-Bothell, calling pollution an “environmental justice issue,” brought up the issue of race.
“Even when factors like region and income level are taken into account, communities of color breathe more air pollution than white people,” she said. “Black Americans are harmed most of all. Black people are more likely to live near power plants than white people. And black children are more likely to have asthma than white children by two times.”
At least one Republican legislator took a different view, framing the decision as a victory for the rule of law.
“It is up to Congress to authorize new regulations that the EPA has been implementing on its own, especially regulations that carry billions of dollars in economic ramifications,” Senate Republican Leader John Braun of Centralia said in a statement. “Executive-branch officials don’t get to do this themselves. It’s entirely appropriate for the Supreme Court to reinforce the separation of powers between the branches of government.”
He then took a jab at Inslee.
“Today’s ruling literally places the power back in the hands of those who are elected – in the hands of the people,” Braun concluded. “The governor apparently finds this inconvenient. That attitude isn’t surprising from someone who has clung to his emergency rule for 850 days and counting.”
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