Court Airs...Er… Errs Again

   

As Americans are dying in record numbers from unprecedented heat, as forest fires rage taking out millions of acres every year (well above averages in recent decades), as increasing tracts of farmland wither away, as cities face water shortages and storms of every kind multiply in frequency and intensity, the right-wing radical Supreme Court has effectively stripped the Environmental Protection Agency of one of its (and our nation’s) most effective tools: setting limits to carbon emissions. On June 30th, the Supreme Court dropped yet another bombshell ruling. Chief Justice John Roberts seems to be aware that he no longer has any meaningful control over the Court, adopting a “if you can’t beat them, join them” stance, wrote the majority opinion in West Virginia vs Environmental Protection Agency in this 6-3 ruling.

“Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible ‘solution to the crisis of the day,’” Roberts wrote, “But it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme,” adding: “a decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body.” In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan responded: “Today, the Court strips the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the power Congress gave it to respond to ‘the most pressing environmental challenge of our time.’”

“Issued in August 2015, the [Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan was] designed to cut U.S. carbon emissions by 32 percent by 2030 and was part of the U.S. pledge at the United Nations climate negotiations held in Paris in December 2015. Shortly after the EPA announced the Clean Power Plan, a group of states and industry groups, led by West Virginia, the nation’s leading coal producer, filed a lawsuit to halt the implementation of the plan, arguing that it exceeded the EPA’s mandate under the Clean Air Act and violated states’ rights to regulate electrical power.” Journal of the American Bar Assn, February 17, 2018. On February 9, 2016, voting along party lines, the Supreme Court had blocked the rule and remanded the case to lower courts for more detailed consideration.

Any Court direction that only Congress can set such rules pretty much guarantees that nothing will change. The June 30th New York Times noted that “Republicans cheered the ruling, with Senator Mitch McConnell saying it limited the power of ‘unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats.’” Already stacked against urban voters, the U.S. Senate already places a 30% minority of voters (who, because of the Constitutional allocation of 2 U.S. per state, elect half the Senate) in control, further reinforced with the 60 votes needed to bring most bills to a floor vote. We are the only purported democracy on earth that denies its central legislature the ability to pass most bills by majority vote.

Reveling in their ability to impose minority views on the majority of Americans, the GOP intends to use that power to push back even more, cheered on by the Supreme Court’s parallel statement that they will review the power of state courts to impact districting as it impacts federal elections. The following reaction to that newfound power is typical: “The lead plaintiff in the case decided by the Supreme Court on Thursday, West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, said that he sees his victory as a first step in the Republicans’ broader effort to curtail not just the authority of the E.P.A. but also the entire executive branch.

“‘We are pleased this case returned the power to decide one of the major environmental issues of the day to the right place to decide it: the U.S. Congress, comprised of those elected by the people to serve the people,’ said Patrick Morrisey, the attorney general of West Virginia, who led a team of fellow Republican attorneys general, many from the nation’s top fossil-fuel producing states.” NY Times.

The result? This little excerpt below, from the June 30th Los Angeles Times, describes what is increasingly becoming permanent “aridification” (aka “desertification”) of California farmland, just one of many states facing the same issues. That California is the nation’s major supplier of fruits and vegetables just may become a distant memory recorded in history books. “Unprecedented dryness across the western United States is meeting with increasingly warm temperatures to create climate conditions so extreme that the landscape of California could permanently and profoundly change, a growing number of scientists say.

“The Golden State’s great drying has already begun to reduce snowpack, worsen wildfires and dry out soils, and researchers say that trend will likely continue, along with the widespread loss of trees and other significant shifts… Some say what’s in store for the state could be akin to the conditions that drove people thousands of years ago to abandon thriving cities in the Southwest and other arid parts of the world as severe drought contributed to crop failures and the crumbling of social norms…

“The warmer atmosphere will also make more precipitation fall as rain instead of snow, affecting the timing and availability of water in the state, and will increase the likelihood of erosion as it saps moisture from plants and soil, said [UCLA climate scientist Park] Williams, who recently published a study that found that the current megadrought was the driest 22-year-period in at least 1,200 years.” That climate change deniers and marginalizers, conspiracy theorists, gun zealots and religious extremists are remaking the rules against majority beliefs not only suggests a repeal of democracy but a denigration in our planet that challenges life itself.

I’m Peter Dekom, and not only does it seem that the rogue, right-wing activist Trump-reconfigured Supreme Court is repealing democracy, but it is willing to put Americans’ health and quality of life at “supreme” risk.