Until this decision, Environmental Protection Agency and other U.S. agencies were considered the final experts. Now they will have to defend their claims in court
By Terigi Ciccone, Quora, June 29, 2024
Until this week, the Environmental Protection Agency had the authority to set pollution regulations on electrical and industrial emissions based on the Chevron Difference concept. This allowed the EPA and all other US government agencies to be regarded as the final experts and arbiters of ambiguous laws and regulations passed by Congress and signed into law.
For example, the EPA had classified CO2 as a pollutant not because it is but because they were deemed the experts and could say that it is, and no other entity could challenge it in court.
The EPA had classified CO2 as a pollutant not because it is but because they were deemed the experts and could say that it is, and no other entity could challenge it in court.
In recent years, the EPA tightened the CO2 limits so much that it made coal and gas-fired plants illegal and would have to be torn down and replaced by wind, solar, or other low CO2-emitting technologies. These actions have dramatically increased the cost of electricity and risked grid stability and reliability.
With this ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court will have four major effects:
- It will negate the EPA’s revised CO2 limits until tried or retried in the lower courts,
- It will remand all existing suits to the lower courts and invite all interested parties to file new suits against the EPA regulations,
- Skeptics’ scientific think tanks, like the CO2 Coalition, have already prepared briefs asserting that CO2 is not a pollutant and does not cause any significant global warming. They have also stated that their scientists are prepared to testify in courts as subject matter experts that will challenge any such claim of expertise made by the EPA or their hired “scientists.”
- It will mean game over for the alarmists. Until this week, the EPA and its alarmist scientists did not have to prove in court their claim that CO2 and other greenhouse gases cause measurable global warming. If the EPA now wants to enforce any of its CO2/GHG regulations, it will need to defend its claims in courtrooms around the country.
Trust me, not one of these alarmist scientists will ever come to testify for the EPA or prevail with their phony claims against the scientists of the CO2 Coalition. More importantly, it’s a major first step in deflating the cost of energy and increasing energy security for electrical generation, transportation, and industrial processes.
An article with more details on this Supreme Court ruling and the Chevron Difference concept can be found at this link.