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In adversarial proceedings, it is seldom prudent to rely on your opponents’ assessment of the outcome. Alas, some conservatives seem inclined to believe Democrats’ self-serving spin about the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its legal effects on the Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency.
According to Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), one of the statute’s drafters, the IRA calls carbon dioxide (CO2) an “air pollutant” in provisions that “amend” the Clean Air Act (CAA). As a consequence, he contends, West Virginia no longer prevents the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating emissions to restructure entire industries or sectors, as it sought to do through the Clean Power Plan (CPP), which the Court vacated.
I aim to set the record straight in an article published today in Real Clear Energy. The piece runs about 1,500 words. Here’s the short version.
West Virginia v. EPA did not review or revise CO2’s regulatory status under the Clean Air Act. Rather, West Virginia reviewed and revoked the CPP—a specific regulatory framework giving the EPA the powers of an industrial policy czar without a clear congressional authorization.
Carper et al. conflate those two things and claim that because the statute calls CO2 an “air pollutant” in provisions that “amend” the CAA, Congress effectively overturned West Virginia, and the EPA is now free to regulate all industries and sectors into compliance with the President’s net-zero...
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