Written by: Neville Kanga
Debates about the situation of the environment come and go, and often times, not much attention is paid toward them. Concerns about the ozone layer are breaking news one day and not the next, and the rise in sea level is only noted by the mass media only when a city gets completely flooded. Climate change is a serious problem in the United States that desperately needs to be addressed by the nation’s leaders, but unfortunately many of those politicians are not able to gauge the severity of this imminent issue. This issue is clearly displayed by the Supreme Court’s ruling on the West Virginia v. EPA case, which took place on June 30th, 2022, that limited the authority of the EPA to regulate emissions from fossil fuel plants. This ruling creates a myriad of problems for the current Biden administration which was attempting to combat climate change thus further stalling efforts to save the planet. In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a Congressionally authorized agency, established the Clean Power Plan under former President Barack Obama, which gave the agency the power to place restrictions on the amount of pollution that could be emitted by coal and natural gas power plants. However, more than half the nation’s states appealed against this law, and in 2016, the Supreme Court ceased the enforcement of the Clean Power Plan. To make matters worse for the EPA, former President Donald Trump and his administration took down the Clean Power Plan, claiming that “‘significantly exceeded’ its authority under federal environmental law”. After several back-and-forth court cases between supporters of the Clean Power Plan versus the Trump administration, the states took the case to the highest court in the nation: the Supreme Court. After much debate, the Supreme Court ruled against the EPA, stating that its Clean Power Plan “does not empower the agency to put a limit on emissions and force power plants to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy” with a vote of 6-3. Does this mean all climate change action is halted in the U.S.? Although the EPA does not have the jurisdiction to directly place emissions restrictions on power plants, it still has a degree of control on the amount of pollution produced by manufacturing and transportation. Furthermore, President Biden’s administration is working to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector while adhering to the Supreme Court’s ruling. In response to the new restrictions, President Biden announced that his administration will “slash greenhouse-gas emissions by 50% from 2005 levels by 2030” however no new developments have been made. Also, companies including Amazon, Apple, and Tesla advocate that “it is ‘vital’ that the EPA ‘play a lead role by regulating greenhouse gas emissions’” and have joined the fight against climate change with the Biden Administration. Even though efforts are being made to work around the Supreme Court’s constraints on the EPA, not much success has been achieved recently, and with the messy legal system in America, the future does not look promising either. However, you can make a small yet significant difference by completing simple tasks such as recycling, carpooling, and conserving resources like plastic, water, and energy. Even volunteering to clean a public park or pick up just one water bottle can make all the difference. I encourage you to advocate for cleaner and greener policies in your household, school, city, county, and even state. On your own, it may seem like nothing, but together, we can all work to save our nation and planet from climate change. Sources: -https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/supreme-court-epa-regulate-greenhouse-gas-emissions/ -https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/30/politics/epa-supreme-court-ruling-effect/index.html -https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1103595898/supreme-court-epa-climate-change -https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/30/environment-epa-supreme-court/
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLatest article written and published by Alexandra Hamilton. Archives
April 2023
Categories |