Republican Drive to Tilt Courts Against Climate Action Reaches a Crucial Moment

[Nevilledog]

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Nick Confessore
@nickconfessore
A riveting @CoralMDavenport story on the decades-long conservative campaign to hobble the federal government’s regulatory power, now about to reach fruition.
Republican attorneys want to hem in what they call the administrative state, the E.P.A. and other federal agencies that set rules and regulations that affect the American economy.
nytimes.com

Republican Drive to Tilt Courts Against Climate Action Reaches a Crucial Moment
A Supreme Court environmental case being decided this month is the product of a coordinated, multiyear strategy by Republican attorneys general and conservative allies.
6:23 AM · Jun 19, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/19/climate/supreme-court-climate-epa.html

No paywall
https://archive.ph/DTdLd


WASHINGTON — Within days, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision that could severely limit the federal government’s authority to reduce carbon dioxide from power plants — pollution that is dangerously heating the planet.
But it’s only a start.

The case, West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, is the product of a coordinated, multiyear strategy by Republican attorneys general, conservative legal activists and their funders, several with ties to the oil and coal industries, to use the judicial system to rewrite environmental law, weakening the executive branch’s ability to tackle global warming.

Coming up through the federal courts are more climate cases, some featuring novel legal arguments, each carefully selected for its potential to block the government’s ability to regulate industries and businesses that produce greenhouse gases.

“The West Virginia vs. E.P.A. case is unusual, but it’s emblematic of the bigger picture. A.G.s are willing to use these unusual strategies more,” said Paul Nolette, a professor of political science at Marquette University who has studied state attorneys general. “And the strategies are becoming more and more sophisticated.”

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[Turbineguy]

1. If it kills more people, republicans like it.

[ZonkerHarris]

2. corporate fascism