link here to article
The court will have to decide whether to uphold or overturn a decision by two conservative lower court judges that allows states and localities to bring suit against electric utilities that are responsible for a major portion of US carbon emissions. Curiously, the electric industry's defense is based upon the concept of federal preemption. They argue that the EPA has jurisdiction over the regulation of greenhouse gases and that state and local governments do not have standing. Of course, simultaneously the industry, with the help of the GOP House, is doing everything that it can to prevent the EPA from regulating CO2 emissions on the grounds that they are not a health hazard.
The decision made by the lower courts could not have been made any stronger in its rationale for its decision. We will have to wait and see whether the Supreme Court has any respect for its own precedents.
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