U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Case On EPA, Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Federal efforts to limit some greenhouse gas emissions go before the U.S. Supreme Court today.

The nation’s high court is looking into rules from 2010 that limited greenhouse gases emitted from chemical plants, refineries, steel mills and cement plants, when they expand or update their technology. Keith Reopelle of Clean Wisconsin supports the existing EPA regulations. He says they specifically targeted larger firms, and if the regulatory process has to start over, smaller companies could be included, too.

“It would seem that this is very important to protect small business economic interests. The EPA is being very practical in how they’re going about addressing climate change,” Reopelle said, “so the first thing they did was make sure that small businesses aren’t going to be unduly impacted.”

Reopelle says carbon emissions from midwestern refineries, steel mills and other large sites do potentially contribute to climate change.

While in Milwaukee last week, National Association of Manufacturers President Jay Timmons complained the EPA’s green house gas regulations are not based on sound science. “[They] don’t have that hard core statistical analysis that’s necessary to make the case. We think that’s what’s coming out of the EPA with the greenhouse gas [regulations].”

The Supreme Court will soon hear another climate change case about power plant emissions crossing state lines. The EPA is also going after emissions from new and existing coal-fired utilities.