Court upholds cross-state air pollution ruleBy Laura Barron-Lopez - 04/29/14 08:01 PM EDTThe Supreme Court in a 6-2 decision Tuesday upheld a rule that allows the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air pollution from power plants that crosses state lines, handing a major victory to President Obama.
The rule, a pillar of Obama’s second-term climate change agenda, requires 28 states in the East, Midwest, and South to cut back on sulfur and nitrogen emissions from coal-fired power plants that “contribute significantly” to air problems in other states.
“Victory for lungs everywhere: SCOTUS recognizes dirty air doesn’t stop at state borders, upholds #EPA pollution rules,” John Podesta, a senior adviser to Obama, wrote on Twitter.
A decision against the administration could have imperiled much of Obama’s environmental agenda. The cross-state pollution rule and other regulations in the works all cite powers under the Clean Air Act.
But by ruling that the EPA maintains authority to regulate nitrogen and sulfur emissions from coal plants, the justices raised the bar for the legal challenges that will likely be filed against the administration’s proposals to regulate carbon emissions from new and existing coal-fired power plants.
“EPA’s cost-effective allocation of emission reductions among upwind States, we hold, is a permissible, workable, and equitable interpretation of the Good Neighbor provision,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the majority opinion.
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