Supreme Court Rebuke Weighs Against Clean Air Act as Climate Law

The Clean Air Act is a regulatory success story that has dramatically reduced U.S. air pollution, but a stinging Supreme Court rebuke constrains efforts to use the 50-year-old statute on its own to aggressively target climate change.

Immovable legislators, shrinking clean air advancements, worsening climate impacts, and debilitating legal challenges are all chipping away at the Clean Air Act’s efficacy to battle climate pollution, according to some policy experts.

The June majority opinion in West Virginia v. EPA took aim at the agency’s ability to use Section 111 of the air law for grid-wide carbon emissions reduction, a key component ...