<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1656601124992,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000172-336d-d668-a372-3bef83ff0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1656601124992,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000172-336d-d668-a372-3bef83ff0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_56601116", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1041132"} }); ","_id":"00000181-b51f-d578-a1dd-bfbf1b4b0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedPresident Joe Biden’s climate change agenda suffered another major setback with the Supreme Court‘s ruling in West Virginia v. EPA, which limits his administration’s ability to make the power sector greener and could effectively require him to lean more on fragile Democratic majorities in Congress that have yet to deliver him an environmental policy victory.
The court limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act, as the Obama administration tried to do with its Clean Power Plan, and preempted a rule that Biden’s EPA has been crafting to regulate power plant emissions.
That means the EPA will have to try leaning on other forms of statutory authority to get the ball rolling on Biden’s goal of decarbonizing the power sector by 2035, or Biden will have to turn to Congress, as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) said will be necessary.
GREEN GROUPS SUE TO STOP BIDEN’S LARGEST ONSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASE SALE
“The Republicans on the Supreme Court are not going to allow any meaningful administration efforts to combat climate change,” Wyden said in response to the court’s ruling. “The only way to tackle this problem is through congressional action, which is why it’s so important that Congress pass our clean energy tax credit package.”
But Biden and Democratic leadership in Congress have been unable to find consensus to deliver Biden’s agenda so far.
Democratic leadership failed to marshal Biden’s signature “Build Back Better” proposal, which would provide hundreds of billions of dollars in incentives for green energy, through Congress last year. With only 50 Democrats in the Senate, the party has no margin for error and has been unable to reach a deal that would gain support from both liberals and centrists, especially Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Biden set out a number of ambitious climate goals for the U.S. economy. He wants half of all new vehicle sales to be electric models beginning in 2030, and he wants to achieve 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035.
The Biden EPA has been crafting its own rule to regulate emissions from power plants, and Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar had asked the court not to cut its efforts off with a ruling such as the one it delivered Thursday.
The ruling adds to the list of setbacks for Biden that extends beyond congressional inaction on his green agenda.
Biden ordered a pause on federal oil and gas leasing after taking office, but a federal judge later ruled that the government has to carry out lease sales where there are eligible lands.
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The Interior Department appealed that ruling but has since scheduled and carried out lease sales, citing the ruling, despite Biden’s promise to end drilling on federal lands.
The global energy crisis has also required his administration to ask the oil and gas industry for more production in a bid to lower prices in the short term, which has caused immense friction between him and his green constituencies, while simultaneously promising it is working to transition the economy away from fossil fuels.
