The Supreme Court temporarily blocked an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plan to limit ozone pollution that drifts across state lines on Thursday.
The Supreme Court temporarily blocked an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plan to limit ozone pollution that drifts across state lines on Thursday.
The court ruled to temporarily block the EPA’s “good neighbor” rule for ozone, which the agency originally intended to impose on 23 states via complex regulatory processes. The stay will remain in place as litigation over the rule plays out in lower courts.
The court decided to block the rule by a 5-4 vote, with Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elana Kagan dissenting. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the court’s opinion, and was joined in the majority by Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts and Samuel Alito.
While the policy was originally slated to apply to 23 states, legal challenges effectively cut that number down to 11 states. Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia — the three states challenging the EPA in the case — argued that the EPA’s plans, if executed, would impose billions of dollars of costs and undermine power grid reliability by effectively mandating the closure of certain fossil fuel-power generation facilities, according to Bloomberg News.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, has defended the rule on the grounds that it is a key tool for reducing air pollution and improving health outcomes for people who live in ozone pollution’s downwind path, according to Bloomberg.
