The only way to solve a problem is to admit you have one. Admit it or not—America, we have a problem. I am referring to last week’s repeal by EPA of the Endangerment Finding that removed the legal basis for regulating greenhouse gases. More than not—admitting that we have a problem when the EPA is denying the obvious reality—is the problem that the climate is rapidly warming and changing at a pace unprecedented in recorded human history.
What is telling about the repeal is that the EPA didn’t spend any real time arguing that the science is wrong, and probably did so knowing that no serious court would find that a preponderance of the evidence supported that view. Rather, the EPA made a series of legal arguments that the Clean Air Act did not authorize EPA to regulate greenhouse gasses. The EPA arguments run directly counter to a 2007 United States Supreme Court ruling that found that the authority, and obligation, to regulate emissions harmful to the climate was clear within the law. The EPA is taking direct aim at overturning settled precedent that the current leadership doesn’t like.
The EPA seems to be hoping that three of the dissenting voices from the 2007 decision who remain on the Court will be joined by at least two of the three Trump appointees to the Court to overturn 20 years of precedent and settled law. The fact that all five of the justices who voted to validate EPA’s Clean Air Act authority in 2007 are no longer on the Court makes plain the calculus behind the administration’s gambit. We have seen this movie before and it hasn’t been good, so there is real cause for concern here.
The laws of physics are what they are, regardless of how the Supreme Court rules. What this likely means is that Rome (and many other places) will burn while others flood as the United States fiddles. We will all pay the price no matter what the EPA spin tells you to believe.
