SCOTUS Blocks Obama Clean Power Plan, Hinders Future of Environmental Legislation

[Jefferson23]

Never ever vote Republican nor skip voting

Robert Pollin says legally halting executive order on power-plants poses possible "disaster" for future emissions reduction

- February 11, 2016

Bio

Robert Pollin is Distinguished Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He is also the founder and President of PEAR (Pollin Energy and Retrofits), an Amherst, MA-based green energy company operating throughout the United States. His books include The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy (co-authored 1998); Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity (2003); An Employment-Targeted Economic Program for South Africa (co-authored 2007); A Measure of Fairness: The Economics of Living Wages and Minimum Wages in the United States (co-authored 2008), Back to Full Employment (2012), Green Growth (2014), Global Green Growth (2015) and Greening the Global Economy (forthcoming 2015). He has worked recently as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Energy, the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and numerous non-governmental organizations in several countries on various aspects of building high-employment green economies. He has also directed projects on employment creation and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa for the United Nations Development Program, and has worked with many U.S. non-governmental organizations on creating living wage statutes at both the statewide and municipal levels. He is presently a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Commission project on Financialization, Economy, Society, and Sustainable Development (FESSUD). He was selected by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the �100 Leading Global Thinkers for 2013.�

Transcript

SCOTUS Blocks Obama Clean Power Plan, Hinders Future of Environmental Legislation

PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News Network.
I'm Paul Jay, coming to you today from the PERI Institute in Amherst, Massachusetts.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a temporary block of the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan. This came about as a result of an Obama executive order that directed the EPA to reduce coal emission, mostly from coal power plants. The court split 5-4, the five conservative members for the temporary block and the four liberal members against it. The case in front of them was brought by 29 mostly Republican-led states and the energy industry.

Now joining us to talk about the consequences of all this is Bob Pollin, who is the co-director of the PERI Institute. Thanks very much for joining us.

ROBERT POLLIN: Thanks very much, Paul, for being here and having me on.

JAY: So if I understand it correctly, the reason the Supreme Court has this decision at this time, because it's kind of weird, in June the U.S. Appeals Court is actually going to hear the case. So why have a temporary block when your appeals court is going to hear it, and in fact none of the states have to even comply for two years? It seems to be mostly to get the U.S. Supreme Court to send a kind of directive, not legally binding of course, but an indication that the U.S. Supreme Court thinks that the underlying case of these 29 states has merit.

Do you think the underlying case of these 29 states has merit?

POLLIN: Well, I, of course, am not a legal scholar. So I can't really judge on this particular, narrow issue as to the degree of states' authority versus federal authority in establishing environmental standards--.

JAY: Which is what, what it's more about. It's not the underlying case of whether or not carbon emissions from coal plants cause climate change. It's does President Obama have the right to have such authority.

POLLIN: Have the authority to establish, by executive order, that wasn't a vote of Congress, by executive order, this authority. So--.

JAY: So what will be the consequences? When this order was passed, it was seen as one of the few--and I know, I've listened to you in our previous interviews, not the only thing done by the Obama administration. But one of the few really binding things that would actually have some real impact on carbon emission, and now it looks like the courts are gonna--might undo it.

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[ZM90]

1. The Fascist Five strikes again. n/t.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

2. AIR WATER FOOD

This is a literal fight for life.

[Jefferson23]

3. Seriously, it is. n/t