HLS Professor Jody Freeman examines the role of the Supreme Court in climate regulation
By Jody Freeman, The New York Times
With Congress doing little on climate change, President Biden must use his executive authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions across the U.S. economy.
The Supreme Court appears determined to thwart him.
In a case to be argued on Feb. 28, the court seems poised to restrict the Environmental Protection Agency’s legal authority to limit carbon pollution from power plants and, by doing so, frustrate the country’s efforts to slow the pace of climate change.
The justices went out of their way to take the case brought by coal companies and Republican-led states even though no federal rule in effect regulates greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, and no company or state is required to take any action to control those emissions. No power company petitioned the court for its review, and in fact, several of the nation’s biggest power companies opposed the justices’ adding the case to their docket.
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