The future construction of new natural gas power plants may prove less plentiful in the wake of a just-released U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Ruling in the West Virginia v. EPA case, the higher court in a 6 to 3 vote said the Environmental Protection Agency lacks the authority to regulate the nation’s power plant industry.
In a majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said current federal law provides no authorization for agencies to implement regulations as substitutes for Congressional laws “passed by the people’s representatives.”
Writing in dissent, Associate Justice Elena Kagan accused the Supreme Court of attempting to prevent “congressionally authorized agency action to curb power plants’ carbon dioxide emissions.”
Continued Kagan: “The Court appoints itself—instead of Congress or the expert agency—the decision-maker on climate policy.”
In a statement, the Sierra Club declared that the Supreme Court ruling has “effectively eliminated the US Environmental Protection Agency’s most effective tool for reducing climate pollution from existing fossil fuel burning power plants. This decision is deeply disappointing and dangerous.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, on the other hand, remarked that the Supreme Court ruling has “undone illegal regulations issued by the EPA without any clear congressional authorization and confirmed that only the people’s representatives in Congress—not unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats—may write our nation’s laws.”
A statement issued by the EPA in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling said that the agency will “move forward with lawfully setting and implementing environmental standards that meet our obligation to protect all people and all communities from environmental harm.”
In response to both environmental and economic concerns, natural gas power plants have increasingly been coming online across the country in recent years. The federal Energy Information Administration has forecast a 27% increase in natural gas power plant capacity within the next two years, with that figure jumping to 40% by 2040.
By Garry Boulard
