WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has put on hold the Environmental Protection Agency’s “good neighbor” plan to combat air pollution while legal challenges continue, the conservative-led court’s latest blow to federal regulations.
The justices, by a 5-4 vote Thursday, rejected arguments from the Biden administration and Democratic-controlled states that the plan reduced air pollution and saved lives in 11 states where it was enforced, and that the Supreme Court’s intervention did not was justified.
The rule is intended to limit stack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution. It will be put on hold while the federal appeals court in Washington considers a challenge to the plan by industry and Republican-led states.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court that the states will likely win in the end, one of the factors justifying the court’s decision to block the plan for now.
Contrary, Justice Amy Coney Barrett was accompanied by her three Liberal colleagues. Barrett said she doubted the states and industry would ultimately prevail.
Still, the Supreme Court’s order leaves large parts of Windward states free to continue contributing significantly to their Downwind neighbors’ ozone problems for years to come, she wrote.
In a statement, the EPA noted that the court’s action was not a final decision. “The EPA is disappointed with today’s ruling, which will delay the benefits the Good Neighbor Plan is already delivering in many states and communities,” the EPA said.
The Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, has increasingly curbed the powers of federal agencies, including the EPA, in recent years. The justices have limited the EPA’s authority to combat air and water pollution — including a landmark 2022 ruling that limited the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants that contribute to global warming. The court also struck down a vaccine mandate and blocked President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.
The court is currently considering whether to overturn the 40-year-old Chevron decision, which was the basis for enforcing a wide range of regulations in public health, workplace safety and consumer protection.
Three energy-producing states — Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia — along with the steel industry and other groups, have challenged the air pollution rule, calling it expensive and ineffective. They had asked the Supreme Court to stay the case while their challenge makes its way through the courts.
The challengers pointed to decisions in courts across the country that have suspended the rule in a dozen states, arguing that those decisions have undermined the EPA’s goal of providing a national solution to the ozone pollution problem because the agency relied on the assumption that all 23 states targeted by the rule would participate.
The matter came to the court on an urgent basis, which almost always results in an order from the court without arguments before the judges.
But not this time. The court heard arguments in late February, when a majority of the court appeared skeptical of arguments by the administration and New York, representing Democratic states, that the “good neighbor” rule was important to protect leeward states that experience unwanted air pollution from other states receive. .
The EPA has said power plant emissions fell 18% last year in the 10 states where it was allowed to enforce its rule, which was finalized a year ago. Those states are Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. In California, limits on emissions from industrial sources other than power plants should take effect in 2026.
The rule has been suspended in another 10 states due to separate legal challenges. Those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
States that contribute to ground-level ozone, or smog, are required to submit plans to ensure that coal-fired power plants and other industrial sites do not contribute significantly to air pollution in other states. In cases where a state has not submitted a “good neighbor” plan – or where the EPA disapproves a state plan – the federal plan was supposed to ensure that the Downwind states are protected.
Ground-level ozone, which is created when industrial pollutants chemically react in the presence of sunlight, can cause respiratory problems, including asthma and chronic bronchitis. People with compromised immune systems, the elderly and children playing outside are particularly vulnerable.
