Supreme Court halts enforcement of the EPA's plan to limit downwind pollution from power plants
The Supreme Court is putting the Environmental Protection Agency’s air pollution-fighting “good neighbor” plan on hold while legal challenges continue
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is putting the Environmental Protection Agency’s air pollution-fighting “good neighbor” plan on hold while legal challenges continue, the conservative-led court’s latest blow to federal regulations.
The justices in a 5-4 vote on Thursday rejected arguments by the Biden administration and Democratic-controlled states that the plan was cutting air pollution and saving lives in 11 states where it was being enforced and that the high court’s intervention was unwarranted.
The rule is intended to restrict smokestack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution. It will remain on hold while the federal appeals court in Washington considers a challenge to the plan from industry and Republican-led states.
Writing for the court, Justice Neil Gorsuch said the states are likely to win in the end, among the factors justifying the court's decision to block the plan for now.
In dissent, Justice Amy Coney Barrett was joined by her three liberal colleagues. Barrett said she doubted the states and industry would ultimately prevail.
Yet the high court's order, “leaves large swaths of upwind States free to keep contributing significantly to their downwind neighbors’ ozone problems for the next several years,” she wrote.
In a statement, the EPA noted that court's action was not a final decision. “The EPA is disappointed in today’s ruling, which will postpone the benefits that the Good Neighbor Plan is already achieving in many states and communities,” the EPA said.
The Supreme
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