On June 30, by a six to three vote, the US Supreme Court issued its long awaited ruling for West Virginia vs the Environmental Protection Agency. Lawsuits filed mainly by US coal companies challenging the EPA’s regulatory authority were consolidated into this one case. The narrow legal issue here, simply stated, is whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ) had the authority to regulate carbon emissions from so-called “stationary sources, ” such as coal fired power plants, or whether this regulation constituted an excessive…
