In a blow to climate activism, the Supreme Court on Thursday severely limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to place emission caps on power plants. In the case, West Virginia v. EPA, several states led by West Virginia and fossil fuel companies fought against the regulations imposed by the Obama administration under the Clean Air Act. The 6-3 ruling by the court’s conservative justices ultimately weakens the federal agency’s authority to limit carbon emissions and combat the worst effects of the climate crisis. We look at the decision’s impact on vulnerable communities, particularly lower-income, Black and Brown residents who live close to coal-fired power plants, as well as the climate emergency more broadly. “They’ve put people’s lives in danger, and they have also put in place steps that will accelerate the climate crisis,” says Mustafa Ali, formerly head of the environmental justice program at the Environmental Protection Agency
It makes it so much more difficult to be able to achieve the goals that the IPCC and the National Climate Assessment has shared with us. You know, domestically in our country, just to actually anchor folks in some facts, we’ve got between 200,000 and 300,000 people who die prematurely from air pollution. And a part of it also comes from coal-fired power plants. So, we know that not only were we trying to make sure that we are lowering the emissions that are coming out of there, the carbon emissions, but you also
— source democracynow.org | Jul 01, 2022