In a ruling that court observers said was “really extraordinary” and achieved through “a procedural strangeness,” the Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a federal plan to reduce air pollution that blows across state lines.
The 5-4 decision from the court’s conservative justices halts, for now, the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Good Neighbor” rule and its stringent smokestack emissions requirements on power plants and other industrial sources. The court ruled that the EPA failed to “reasonably explain” its policy and placed it on hold pending the outcome of more than a dozen lawsuits.
Environmental advocates said the decision will leave millions of people breathing dirtier air this summer. They also worry that future challenges to federal policies could similarly “short-circuit the normal process of judicial review” by appealing directly to the Supreme Court.
“What this shows me is that this court is no longer neutral in cases involving environmental regulations,” Sam Sankar, senior vice president for... Read more
