Huh? The Congress that created the EPA granted that authority, which is why the EPA has had the court's full support for decades. It took an extremely partisan SCOTUS to invent an excuse to say the opposite.
Call them partisan all you'd like, SCOTUS has the authority to make the determination of whether or not the EPA had such authority.
Meaning, you can claim they are bias, but the EPA still doesn't have said authority.
Nothing you, I or any pundit says will change that. At least until congress grants it said authority. Which as SCOTUS pointed out, congress tried to do, but congress didn't pass the legislation. Now.. why would congress try to pass legislation if the EPA already had said authority?
Congress delegated their authority to the EPA. Congress is empowered to retain that authority and they're empowered to overrule any EPA regulation they disagree with. Congress retains all the power.
When it comes to the Supreme Court - that's it. Congress can't do anything about Supreme Court rulings. Your comparison of the EPA to the Supreme Court is misguided.
Congress did vote for EPA to have this power. The Supreme Court decided that they didn't like where that power led, and is now restricting the types of laws that Congress can make.
You're looking at it completely backwards. Congress was fine to let the EPA run around and do whatever, because that means people can bitch at the EPA instead of Congress.
> Why is it the court's job to tell congress what they meant to say?
That's... not what they're doing. The court is telling Congress that if you want an agency to have the power to make vast, sweeping changes, then you have to be explicit. They don't get to create an agency and then just give them blanket authority to do anything they want, at any scale.
Do y'all not consider how the EPA came into being in the first place? It exists because a previous congress did do something and delegated their authority for a very specific reason. Like it was a joint effort between Republicans and Democrats even.
What this Supreme Court has decided to do is say that what they did doesn't matter, knowing that the current makeup in congress is in gridlock due to how modern day Republicans behave. Like the dissent was posted here. Congress explicitly empowered the EPA to work towards the best system of emission reduction.
That is silly hyperbolic overreaction. The court literally upheld the EPA regulating greenhouse gasses at the point of creation. It upheld the specific regulations how coal was burned. All it said was the EPA wasn't empowered to move into grid management schemes. If congress wants to grant them that power, it can.
Just because it is called the EPA, doesn't mean it is invested with all power to do whatever it thinks is right regarding the environment. Congress delegated some powers that were environment related.
If it is important for the EPA to act on these matters, then call your Congress critters and have them pass a law granting more power to the EPA.
This ruling is a win for democracy and the rule of law.
Relying on novel interpretations of law like this is fragile, and short sighted. It's worth it to get everyone on board instead of trying to pull a fast one. In a democracy, getting everyone on board means getting laws passed.
So to recap: the SCOTUS has ruled that the agency established and authorized by Congress to regulate environmental protection does not have the authority to regulate environmental protection.
Supreme Court simply ruled that EPA exceeded its authority given by lawmakers. Congress should give EPA more authority if its intends for the EPA to do more.
The issue we have is government agencies overreaching beyond their remit.
That's doing nothing but recapitulating the partisan nitpickery in the decision. My point was that the court had copious ways to enforce the technicalities under the law without maximally (!) interfering with the operation of the regulatory agency. They chose not to, not because of any genuine concern for the law but because they wanted to dick with the EPA for partisan reasons.
'WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Thursday curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s powers to restrict greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants, in a decision that could limit the authority of government agencies to address major policy questions without congressional approval.
Elaborating on earlier decisions, the high court said federal agencies need explicit authorization from Congress to decide issues of major economic and political significance, drawing on a principle known as the “major questions doctrine.”
In his decision for the 6-3 majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said Congress never gave the EPA the authority to change the methods a power plant uses—regulations known as “generation shifting” requirements.
Chief Justice Roberts said that forcing a nationwide transition away from coal may be a “sensible” idea, but the EPA cannot do so without a clear authority from Congress.
“A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body,” the chief justice wrote, adding that the “EPA claimed to discover an unheralded power representing a transformative expansion of its regulatory authority in the vague language of a long-extant, but rarely used, statute.”'
You are oversimplifying. Generally speaking, most of the work of SCOTUS is reigning in the Executive because of overzealous regulators. The US regulatory framework is theoretically designed to be based in law, made by the legislature, not the whims of unelected bureaucracy.
Congress delegating it’s power is suspect at best, and likely unconstitutional entirely (something something, War Powers Act). Congress created the EPA through the power of the purse, but it’s operated by the Executive, and therefore is not and should not be empowered to unilaterally create regulations with the force of law. Making law is Congress’ job.
As mentioned in the dissent, congress explicitly gave them the power to regulate green house gasses in this specific scenario. But the majority conservative opinion made up their own rationale as to why that somehow doesn't apply in order to curb the EPAs power.
The modern day supreme court is a joke, unable to be even remotely consistent in how it applies its rationale and its clear they're merely another puppet for conservative politics.
> it's the EPA that has the authority to make that designation (at least until the SCOTUS decides that only it has that authority).
And the SCOTUS has the authority to rule on whether the EPA's rulemaking is within its statutory authority or not. Which is what it did today. So why are you objecting? Both governmental entities are exercising their authority. The fact that one such exercise, the EPA's, is one you like, and the other such exercise, the Court's is one you don't like, is irrelevant, according to your own logic, just as it's irrelevant, according to your own logic, that the EPA's rule under review here defies logic, common sense, and the plain meaning of words.
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