As a Supreme Court Decision Hanging in the Balance, a Novel Argument: Regulate Greenhouse Gases Under TSCA

Drilled

Critical Frequency

True Crime, Earth Sciences, Social Sciences, Science

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

As we wait to hear whether the Supreme Court will toss WV v EPA altogether or apply the major questions doctrine to broadly rule against the EPA regulating greenhouse gases, period, a group of climate scientists and advocates are filing a petition this morning demanding that the EPA regulate greenhouse gas emissions—not under the Clean Air Act, the legislation in question in West Virginia v EPA, but under a law no one has yet applied to climate change, the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Transcript

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0:00.0	EPA is well aware of all of these things and they're worried about it and all the staff is running
0:04.8	around wishing that they could do something. The problem is they felt that they didn't have the
0:09.2	authority and that none of the laws gave the authority and in fact the authority has been hiding
0:14.8	in plain sight the entire time under the toxic substances act but there was sort of a perceived wisdom
0:21.5	that the toxic substances control act didn't work based on how the agency got hammered over
0:27.5	asbestos and it was actually the agencies fall because they didn't do their due diligence but they
0:31.4	thought they had a slam dunk there it didn't work they kind of threw up their hands and say we have
0:36.0	to work under the Clean Air Act which is an abysmal law
0:44.0	welcome back to Dread I'm Amy Westervalt a lot of climate folks are on
0:57.5	and I'm waiting for the Supreme Court to rule in West Virginia versus EPA at case questions whether
1:06.6	the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants particularly beyond
1:12.8	the immediate area of the plants themselves folks are worried the court might come down with a
1:18.0	broad ruling that severely limits the agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gases period the
1:24.7	other end of the spectrum is entirely possible too the case argues about a problem that no longer
1:30.8	exists the clean power plan historically when the court is asked to rule on something that has
1:37.2	become a moot point over the course of litigation they opt not to rule in this case it's unclear
1:45.9	which direction they'll go while we wait to see what will happen there it's important to remember
1:50.8	a couple of things first West Virginia versus EPA deals specifically with the Clean Air Act
1:57.6	historically the Clean Air Act is the law that's been invoked in various efforts to deal with
2:02.6	greenhouse gases and for obvious reasons if you're trying to regulate something that's released into
2:07.3	the air it makes sense to invoke the law meant to protect the air but first of all the EPA absolutely
2:14.9	can continue to regulate particulate matter under the Clean Air Act that's a type of air pollution
	...

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