Supreme Court Rules Against EPA on CO2 Regulation

 WUWT, BOOM! Supreme Court ruling : EPA doesn’t have power to regulate carbon dioxide

This is a YUUUUGE win!

The court’s decision in the West Virginia v. EPA case decided that the EPA doesn’t have the power to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

The vote was 6 to 3, with the court’s three liberal members dissenting.

Chief Justice John Roberts, said that Congress had not explicitly given the EPA the authority to regulate emissions.

Excerpt from Justice Roberts:

But the only interpretive question before us, and the only one we answer, is more narrow: whether the “best system of emission reduction” identified by EPA in the Clean Power Plan was within the authority granted to the Agency in Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. For the reasons given, the answer is no.

Here’s the final paragraph of the Opinion of the Court:

Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible “solution to the crisis of the day.” New York v. United States, 505 U. S. 144, 187 (1992). But it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme in Section 111(d). A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is reversed, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

As Joe Biden might say "This is a Big F*cking Deal!"