Clean Wisconsin has intervened to defend the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in two national lawsuits aimed at dismantling the authority of the agency to administer and enforce critical environmental protections.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week in the first case which centers on the EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan, a federal rule designed to address air pollution that crosses state lines. Wisconsin communities have long experienced harmful air pollution worsened by ozone-forming emissions coming from upwind states.
“This rule is aimed at protecting people and saving lives, pure and simple,” says Clean Wisconsin attorney Katie Nekola. “Air pollution doesn’t recognize state borders, and this is a commonsense measure to address that. The Supreme Court should uphold a rule that’s so clearly needed to ensure everyone has clean air to breathe, no matter where they are.”
Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia are challenging the plan along with fossil fuel industry interests including oil and gas and coal mining groups.
The cases consolidated in last week’s oral arguments are Ohio v. EPA (23A349), Kinder Morgan v. EPA (23A350), American Forest & Paper Association v. EPA (23A351), and United States Steel Corporation v. EPA (23A384).
In the second lawsuit, currently in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, twenty-five red states are challenging new EPA rules governing how states and tribes implement emissions guidelines for oil and gas production and power plants, including EPA’s proposed new power plant rules.
The proposed rules were released by the EPA last year after a controversial decision from the U.S. Supreme Court limited how the agency can regulate power plant emissions, restricting it from implementing broad requirements focused on shifting energy production away from coal and natural gas to cleaner sources like wind and solar. The new rules abide by that ruling, requiring fossil fuel-burning power plants to reduce emissions on-site. Now, 25 states are challenging EPA’s ability to ensure state plans comply with federal standards.
Nekola says both cases are aimed at severely limiting the EPA’s authority to hold polluters accountable.
“The Clean Air Act was enacted in 1970, the same year Clean Wisconsin was founded. But its protections are not guaranteed, we’re seeing them under attack in both of these cases,” she says. “And it’s not just the Clean Air Act. Other foundational environmental protections are beginning to erode as the EPA’s authority is curtailed and diminished through coordinated legal challenges. It’s important for people to understand these cases are not happening in a vacuum. They’re happening one after another on the Federal level and state level all across the country.”
