The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision limiting the EPA’s ability to rein in power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions won’t affect Maryland’s own accelerating emissions reduction goals — but makes such efforts by states all the more important in addressing the threats of climate change, advocates said.
‘The importance and urgency of Maryland’s actions to fight climate change went up dramatically today,’ Maryland League of Conservation Voters Executive Director Kim Coble said.
The court’s conservative majority ruled Thursday that EPA currently doesn’t have legal authority to order power plants to limit their emissions of carbon dioxide, the byproduct of fossil fuel combustion that is responsible for the bulk of a nearly 2 degree rise in global average temperatures since 1880.
