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What You Should Know About the Supreme Court’s Landmark EPA Ruling West Virginia v.EPA Worries Eenvironmental Advocates, Sparks Protests Kayla Benjamin WI Contributing Writer Close to 100 supporters of climate action raised their voices in front of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, July 6, in spite of the morning’s sticky heat and a sky that threatened rain. “We are unstoppable! A better world is possible!” advocates chanted. “Climate action now!” The group, organized by Climate Action Campaign, showed up to rally against the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in West Virginia vs. Environmental Protection Agency, which limited the EPA’s regulatory authority to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The June 30 ruling came at the end of a busy month for the court, which delivered hugely impactful decisions eliminating Americans’ federally-protected right to abortion access and expanding the right to carry guns in public. Amidst a busy news cycle, advocates for climate action and environmental justice have fought to focus attention on this ruling’s potential consequences for both climate change and air pollution. “It's very technical when we start talking about ‘coal-fired power plants’ and ‘renewable portfolio standards,’” said Cecile Brown, a communications manager for political affairs and climate at the En-
vironmental Defense Fund. “I don't think the average person or the average resident knows what's at stake. And I think that's just the most alarming thing about this decision,” Brown said. So what are the stakes? And why are climate experts and environmental advocates like Brown so concerned? Here are three things to know about this consequential ruling.
CLIMATE CHANGE, AIR POLLUTION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ARE ALL AT STAKE
Fossil fuel burning power plants, which emit harmful chemicals like sulfur dioxide and mercury alongside greenhouse gasses, continue to be disproportionately located in Black, Latino, Indigenous, and low-income communities. The Supreme Court ruling makes it more difficult for the EPA to regulate these emissions and push industries to switch from high-polluting fuels like coal to cleaner forms of energy. “The average person takes about 20,000 breaths a day: for some people, those 20,000 breaths are in dangerous, dirty air and for others they will be in clean air,” said Mustafa Santiago Ali, vice president, Environmen-
tal Justice, Climate and Community Revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation. “This decision places challenges on our most vulnerable communities and our most vulnerable children,.” he said. The case demonstrates the court’s push to reduce federal agencies’ power. West Virginia v. EPA centered on an Obama-era initiative called the Clean Power Plan (CPP) which would have required states to cut back on emissions from power plants and meet federally-mandated goals. However, before it could go into effect, the Supreme Court suspended the plan. Years later, the U.S. energy sector actually exceeded the plan’s intended goals even without any comprehensive regulation in place after a number of aging coal plants simply became more expensive to operate than natural gas or renewable energy plants. Since the goals had already been achieved, the Biden administration said it wasn’t interested in trying to revive the CPP. “Is it purely about the law? Or is it about politics? Because we know that for the last 30 years, the Republican Party has been focused on deconstructing many of our environmental protections,” Ali said. “They had to
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5 Protesters gathered at the Supreme Court on July 6 before marching to the Capitol building. (Kayla Benjamin/The Washington Informer)
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