Supreme Court blocks Biden plan on air pollution

FILE — The coal-fired Gavin Power Plant in Cheshire, Ohio on Aug. 21, 2018. The Supreme Court on June 27, 2024 temporarily put on hold an Environmental Protection Agency plan to curtail air pollution that drifts across state lines, dealing another blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to protect the environment. (Maddie McGarvey/The New York Times)

WASHINGTON (NYT) — The Supreme Court temporarily put on hold Thursday an Environmental Protection Agency plan to curtail air pollution that drifts across state lines, dealing another blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to protect the environment.

The ruling followed recent decisions chipping away at the agency’s authority to address climate change and water pollution.

The ruling was provisional, and challenges to the plan will continue to be litigated in an appeals court and could then return to the Supreme Court. But even the temporary loss for the administration will suspend the plan for many months and maybe longer.

The vote was 5-4. The decision concerned the administration’s “good neighbor” plan, which initially applied to 23 states. Under the proposal, factories and power plants in Western and Midwestern states must cut ozone pollution that drifts into Eastern ones.

© 2024 The New York Times Company

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