The Inflation Reduction Act does not revolve around the Supreme Court’s climate ruling in West Virginia v. EPA, but it strengthens EPA’s future capabilities

Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law School

The new one Inflation Reduction Act is being celebrated as the most important piece of federal law to address the climate crisis to date. It includes about $370 billion in incentives for everything from solar panels to electric vehicles.

But there is some confusion around what it allows the Environmental Protection Agency to do.

Comments from politicians either side of the path suggested that the new law could change Decision of the US Supreme Court in which the court’s conservative majority tied the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

The new law amends the Clean Air Act – the nation’s main air quality law – to identify certain greenhouse gases as air pollutants. Therefore, it will help EPA when planning future regulations. But it does not specifically grant the EPA new authority to manage power plants.

So, in terms of breakthrough, the Inflation Reduction Act does not change the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA that the EPA lacks the authority to require a systematic transition to cleaner sources of power generation.

Why the ruling is still a roadblock for the EPA

The case involving the Obama administration Clean electricity plana policy may have required power plants to use cleaner forms of electricity but has never come into effect.

Write to the court in West Virginia v. EPAChief Justice John Roberts argued that the EPA was asserting broad new authority under a little-used provision of the Clean Air Act that had not been explicitly authorized by Congress.

In what has been called “main question doctrine, the Court has adopted a more rigorous approach to interpreting the laws that are far less misleading than the views of experts at the federal agencies responsible for implementing complex regulatory programs. complex, dynamic designed to protect public health and safety. That accurately describes the challenge of dealing with carbon pollution and the profound impacts it is having around the world.

Roberts made it clear that Congress could choose to pass more detailed legislation, giving the EPA central authority if it so desired. https://www.youtube.com/embed/uio0wr3x2xo?wmode=transparent&start=0 Explains the West Virginia ruling v. EPA.

Amended Inflation Reduction Act An American law used to control air pollution in the country adds seven new programs specifically to reduce greenhouse gases and provides funding for states to develop their own plans. Taken together, these provisions go a long way to addressing Roberts’ concern that Congress has not been clear on EPA’s authority to address climate change.

But it cannot grant EPA the authority to reinstate the Clean Power Plan’s generational approach.

To get the bill through the heavily divided Congress, the Senate majority Democrats used a process known as budget adjustment. That process allows legislation to be passed with only a majority vote. But legislation passed that way must be tied to federal spending, revenue, and debt limits — it cannot establish broad national policy.

What effect does the new law have on EPA’s jurisdiction?

While Inflation Reduction Act cannot undo what the Supreme Court did, it strengthens the EPA’s ability in the future to take stronger actions under the Clean Air Act to reduce greenhouse gases.

Not only did this act significantly increase EPA’s funding for a wide range of air pollution programs, but it also explicitly identified greenhouse gases including six specific gases that EPA identified for the first time. 2009 poses a risk to public health and welfare. That 2009″danger detection“Upheld by the Supreme Court in the 2014 case” Utility Air Conditioning Group v EPA.

As Senator Tom CarperOne of the principal architects of the Inflation Reduction Act, said, “The language makes it clear that greenhouse gases are a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.”

Of course, in life or litigation nothing is certain.

Challenges to EPA’s Upcoming Rules Replace Clean Power Pack, adjustment of methane emissions from oil and gas extraction operations, tightening of emission and fuel economy standards, etc. can be expected. But at least now there is clear legislative direction from Congress for the EPA to take the bold actions needed to respond to the profound challenge of climate change and transition to a sustainable economy.

Patrick ParenteauProfessor of Law, Vermont Law School

This article was republished from Conversation under Creative Commons license. Read original article.