The EPA has more options to rein in climate change than you think

ON JUNE 30, the Supreme Court decided that the Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama had overstepped its authority by creating the Clean Power Plan, which would force the U.S. to transition from coal to cleaner sources of electricity. “A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself,” the court concluded in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency. Congress, however, has failed for decades to address climate change and is unlikely to do so any time soon.

Even though the Clean Power Plan never took effect, the shift away from coal is happening far more quickly than the Obama administration predicted. EPA Administrator Michael Regan has promised to build on that progress despite the court ruling, noting that coal plants pollute the air, water and land in various other ways and that the agency will still require them to clean up their act. Many of those plants will in early July. “We still will be able to regulate climate pollution.”