'Frightening': US Supreme Court deals major blow to federal climate action

6-3 vote

Conservative majority on the Court has struck down the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate CO2 from US power plants under Clean Air Act.

The US Supreme Court has ruled the federal government and its agencies do not have the authority to regulate carbon emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act, in a landmark opinion that experts warn could have major ramifications for government-led climate action. In a 6-3 ruling, the constitutional court's conservative majority sided with fossil fuel firms and the Republican-leaning state of West Virginia in a case seen as one of the most consequential for US climate policy in decades. The case concerned the President Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which would have instructed ...