EcoNews Report
A weekly environmental news roundup produced in Arcata, California by Tom Wheeler (Environmental Protection Information Center), Alicia Hamann (Friends of the Eel River), Jen Kalt (Humboldt Waterkeeper) and Colin Fiske (Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities).
EcoNews Report
Supreme Court’s Climate Decisions are Catastrophic (and Not Just for the Climate)
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The Supreme Court’s recent decision in West Virginia v. EPA not only throws a substantial hurdle ahead of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from coal power plants, it takes a vicious swipe at the entirety of the modern administrative state. Using a new invention—the “major questions doctrine”—the Supreme Court has set up an easy way for conservative judges across the country to invalidate any regulation that a judge finds to be of “vast significance.”
The Supreme Court has been on a bender of recent: reproductive rights (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization), school prayer (Kennedy v. Bremerton School District), tribal sovereignty (Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta), separation of church and state (Carson v. Makin), gun regulation (New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen). All of these controversial decisions were decided by a majority of Republican-appointed judges. This is not a coincidence but the product of a 40+ year movement by conservative activists.
How can environmentalists and progressives restrain the Supreme Court before we lose any more rights and still have a democracy? Listen in to hear more.