ROANOKE, Va. – The Supreme Court ruled the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the power to shift America’s energy production.
Virginia environmentalists are calling it a blow to the climate and Mike Ellerbrock, who served on the EPA advisory council previously and is currently on the Virginia Council on Environmental Justice, calls the ruling a step backward.
Ellerbrock said the court decision could lead to more coal burning and emitting greenhouse gases that could impact health and even foresees an influx of asthma and cancer cases.
“We are facing an existential crisis regarding the future of this planet,’ Ellerbrock said. “How livable is it going to be in the next 50, 100 years much less 500 years.”
Congressman Morgan Griffith announced his agreement with the ruling Thursday and said the plan overstepped authority in the past.
“The Supreme Court today reaffirmed one of the fundamentals of our constitutional structure: the legislature writes the laws,” Griffith said. “The Obama Administration’s EPA overreached its authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The agency gave itself power that Congress had not given to it, and I applaud the Court for reining in this unconstitutional action. This is not the first time the Court has ruled that the Obama-Biden Administration’s EPA went beyond its authority.”