Constitutional Law

EPA Signals Reversal Of Bush Era Position On Clean Air Act

The Obama administration has urged the Supreme Court to dismiss a case over the EPA’s refusal to regulate mercury emissions from power plants. The motion filed by the solicitor general’s office in Environmental Protection Agency v. New Jersey represents a significant break with the Bush administration.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had invalidated the EPA’s stance on not regulating mercury emissions. The Bush administration then appealed the court’s ruling to the Supreme Court, arguing, in part, that the emissions weren’t harmful. In its motion urging the high court to dismiss the case, the solicitor general said the EPA would “develop appropriate standards to regulate power-plant emissions” pursuant to the appeals court ruling. Scotusblog’s Tom Goldstein writes, “This motion to dismiss presents a fairly radical policy reversal for the EPA, which in its petition for certiorari had argued that the original agency finding on power plant regulations was ‘seriously flawed’ and that mercury emissions would not present a public health hazard ….”

Full post as published by ACS Blog on February 06, 2009 (boomark / email).