Monday's ruling stems from the court's 2007 decision declaring that the EPA could regulate carbon dioxide emissions from cars, trucks and other mobile sources under the Clean Air Act. After that decision, the EPA began attempting to regulate stationary sources of greenhouse gas pollution, things like utility plants, steel plants and factories.
But this particular provision of the law was quite specific about what places could be regulated those that emit more than 100 tons of pollutants each year, or in some cases, 250 tons. Those thresholds would mean requiring permits for just about every apartment house, mall, school and church; enforcement would cost tens of billions of dollars, and construction would grind to a halt nationwide.
So, the EPA "tailored" the reach of the statute, and required permits only for those plants that emitted 100,000 tons of pollution a year, instead of 100 tons.
Industry challenged the regulations, hoping to exclude limits on stationary greenhouse gas emission altogether. But on Monday, the business community appeared to have won the battle and lost the war. A five-justice conservative majority agreed that the EPA could not rewrite that particular section of the Clean Air Act to suit its "bureaucratic policy goals."
But and this is a big "but" a seven-justice majority said that under a different provision of the Clean Air Act, if a plant has to get a permit for air pollutants anyway, that will include greenhouse gases.
As the court majority noted, the difference in the reach of these two provisions is only 3 percent.
That's one for the good guys..
