AP Photo/John Raby, File
- The Supreme Court added a case to its docket that will inform the EPA's scope of power.
- The Biden administration asked the court in August to wait to hear the case.
- Combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation are the primary drivers of carbon emissions.
On Friday, the Supreme Court added a case to its docket that will inform the scope of power the US Environmental Protection Agency has to regulate carbon emissions, The New York Times reported.
Members of the Biden administration asked the court in August to wait until the EPA finishes crafting new carbon emission guidelines, which would still be subject to judicial review by the courts, before hearing the case so that any legal challenge may take "a more concrete shape," court documents show.
However, the court decided to hear the appeal brought by coal companies, 18 Republican-led states, and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, that asks it to reign in the EPA's "unbridled power" to decarbonize most sectors of the economy, according to court documents.
The case arrives at the Supreme Court following a 2-1 ruling on January 19, 2021, in which a Washington DC appeals court vacated the Trump administration's repeal of the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era policy that created the first national limits on carbon pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants.
"How we respond to climate change is a pressing issue for our nation, yet some of the paths forward carry serious and disproportionate costs for states and countless other affected parties," the petitioners argued in the appeal, adding that the court should intervene immediately.
Despite decreases in global carbon emissions during the pandemic, the long-term trajectory of carbon emissions remains largely unchanged. A United Nations report from June found that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has steadily increased since the Industrial Revolution, predominately due to the combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation.