Statement by EDF Vice President, US Climate and Energy Program, Jim Marston on the Supreme Court’s Decision to Require Large Polluters to Use Best Available Controls for Climate Pollution

The U.S. Supreme Court held today that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permissibly read the Clean Air Act to require installation of the best available control technology for large new or rebuilt industrial pollution sources of greenhouse gases that are sources of other major air pollutants.

Texas has vociferously challenged these critical climate protections at every turn and has even gone so far as to ask the Supreme Court to reverse its decision in Massachusetts vs. EPA, which established EPA’s foundational authority to address climate pollution under the Clean Air Act. The Supreme Court declined to even hear arguments on that claim and, for the third time, has reaffirmed EPA’s bedrock authority to regulate climate pollution under our nation’s clean air laws.

“As one of the largest and most industrial states in the country, Texas leaders should support EPA’s commonsense standards and lead the nation’s clean energy economy rather than fight against it. The majority of our state’s elected officials have vainly fought tooth and nail against EPA’s efforts to safeguard Texans’ health and wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in the process. It is past time Texas leaders stopped defending major polluters and started innovating rather than litigating.”

• Jim Marston, Vice President, US Climate and Energy, Environmental Defense Fund