U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against EPA Overreach, Burdensome Greenhouse Gas Regulations

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

  • 8/12/2019 U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against EPA Overreach, Burdensome Greenhouse Gas Regulations

    1/2

    STATE OF MICHIGAN

    BILL SCHUETTE

    ATTORNEY GENERAL

    FORIMMEDIATERELEASE MEDIA CONTACT: Joy Yearout

    JUNE 23,2013 517-373-8060

    www.michigan.gov/AGPress

    U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against EPA Overreach,

    Burdensome Greenhouse Gas RegulationsA.G. Schuette: We Are a Nation of Laws

    LANSING - Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today praised a 5-4 decision by the U.S.

    Supreme Court striking down burdensome Environment Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that would

    have imposed new permitting requirements on large manufacturing facilities and power plants. The

    regulation would have ultimately required a multitude of smaller facilities, including hospitals, churches,

    schools, apartment buildings and retailers, to comply with complicated greenhouse gas emission

    permitting requirements. The 5-4 ruling authored by Justice Antonin Scalia declared that the regulation

    exceeded the authority granted to the EPA by Congress and violated the federal Clean Air Act.

    To achieve real economic recovery, we must cut burdensome regulations, not pile them on

    without regard to consequence, said Schuette. Todays ruling is a victory for the rule of law and the

    Constitution. We are a nation of laws, and unelected bureaucrats cannot simply run roughshod over those

    laws. We will continue to hold the President and his administration accountable and rein in overreaching

    policies that harm citizens, states and our economy.

    The following excerpts from the ruling address the lack of Congressional authorization for the

    sweeping regulations:

    Since, as we hold above, the statute does not compel EPAs interpretation, it wouldpatently unreasonable not to say outrageous for EPA to insist on seizing expansive

    power that it admits the statute is not designed to grant. (p. 20)

    In the Tailoring Rule, EPA asserts newfound authority to regulate millions of smallsourcesincluding retail stores, offices, apartment buildings, shopping centers, schools,and churchesand to decide, on an ongoing basis and without regard for the thresholds

    prescribed by Congress, how many of those sources to regulate. We are not willing to standon the dock and wave goodbye as EPA embarks on this multiyear voyage of discovery. We

    reaffirm the core administrative-law principle that an agency may not rewrite clearstatutory terms to suit its own sense of how the statute should operate. (p. 23)

    -MORE-

    http://www.michigan.gov/AGPresshttp://www.michigan.gov/AGPresshttp://www.michigan.gov/AGPress
  • 8/12/2019 U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against EPA Overreach, Burdensome Greenhouse Gas Regulations

    2/2

    U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against EPA Overreach, Burdensome Greenhouse Gas Regulations

    June 23, 2014

    Page 2

    Were we to recognize the authority claimed by EPA in the Tailoring Rule, we would deal asevere blow to the Constitutions separation of powers. Under our system of government,Congress makes laws and the President, acting at times through agencies like EPA, faithfullyexecute[s] them. The power of executing the laws necessarily includes both authority andresponsibility to resolve some questions left open by Congress that arise during the laws

    administration. But it does not include a power to revise clear statutory terms that turn out not towork in practice. (p. 23)

    Case Background

    In May 2010, Michigan joined Texas challenge to the regulations in the case Coalition for

    Responsible Regulation v U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Michigan, Texas and 14 other states

    challenged EPAs original endangerment finding under the Clean Air Act that greenhouse gases from

    new cars endanger public health and welfare because they contribute to climate change. The finding

    triggered the additional greenhouse gas regulations on stationary sources that the Supreme Court struck

    down today as not authorized by the Clean Air Act..

    Schuette noted that although the first round of regulations applied only to larger facilities like

    power plants and oil refineries, a more significant problem was the potential impact on thousands of

    smaller facilities, including smaller manufacturing facilities, retail stores, hospitals, churches, schools, and

    residential facilities if the EPA lowered the regulation thresholds.

    Read the Supreme Courts ruling at this link:bit.ly/scotusepa.

    - 30 -

    http://bit.ly/scotusepahttp://bit.ly/scotusepahttp://bit.ly/scotusepahttp://bit.ly/scotusepahttp://bit.ly/scotusepahttp://bit.ly/scotusepa