Common sense and the rule of law are catching up with the EPA.
Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., in a 2-1 ruling, struck down the EPA’s controversial rule for cross-state air pollution. The court found that the EPA overreached in its attempt to further limit emissions from power plants and other sources that originated in one state and then drifted downwind to another.
The EPA has the authority to require states to curb downwind emissions, but under the new rule imposed last year (which has been on hold because of the court challenge) “states may be required to reduce emissions by more than their own significant contributions (emphasis added) to pollution downwind.”
Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote, “Our limited, but important role is to independently ensure that the agency stays within the boundaries Congress has set. The EPA did not do so here.”
Once again, this Administration’s EPA has been caught taking the law into its own hands.
Earlier this month, federal Judge Reggie Walton ruled that the EPA had overreached when it decided on its own to make it harder for coal mine operators to get the necessary permits.
Judge Walton said the EPA had “overstepped its statutory authority… and infringed on the authority afforded state legislators.”
Before that, federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled against the EPA in its attempts to withdraw its approval for the expansion of Arch Coal’s Spruce #1 mountaintop removal mine in Logan County.
Judge Jackson accused the EPA of engaging of “magical thinking” to justify its attempts to block the permit.
Also this year, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, found in favor of Mike and Chantell Sackett. The EPA accused the Idaho couple of violating the Clean Water Act by filling a small wetland on their property where they planned to build a house.
Justice Antonin Scalia said the EPA was using the Clean Water Act to strong-arm the couple into compliance without a chance for appeal.
Is anyone starting to see a pattern here?
Who can forget the case of Al Armendariz. He’s the former EPA regional administrator who famously explained that his philosophy on enforcement “was kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them. And then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.”
Armendariz was forced to resign, even though his crude description was not far off from what the EPA’s approach has been under Administrator Lisa Jackson.
Interestingly, Armendariz has since joined the Sierra Club, which has a stated goal of eliminating coal and natural gas from the country’s energy portfolio.
Government agencies don’t have free reign. They have to either follow the clear intent of the Congress, which made the law, or follow what the courts call “a permissible construction of the statute.”
There are two ways to bring this EPA back in line: keep up the court challenges or change administrations.