Another Victory For EPA

Two weeks ago the EPA won a big victory when the D.C. Court of Appeals upheld their regulation of mercury emissions.  Today it was the Supreme Court upholding another huge environmental regulation.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday in a 6-2 decision upheld a rule that allows the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate power plant air pollution that crosses state borders, handing President Obama an important regulatory victory.

The rule, a pillar of the Obama administration’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 the air problems in other states.

Despite Congressional inaction, the Obama environmental legacy grows with each passing month.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.