The United States Supreme Court has limited the government’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

WASHINGTON – The United States Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the government’s major environmental agency cannot declare sweeping limitations on greenhouse gases, severely limiting President Joe Biden’s administration’s ability to combat climate change.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Environmental Protection Agency lacked the authority to impose wide limits on emissions from coal-fired power plants, which provide about 20% of the electricity consumed in the United States.

The decision dashes Biden’s ambitions of utilising the EPA to reduce emissions in order to reach global climate objectives set in 2015 under the Paris Climate Agreement.

It was a huge victory for the coal mining and coal power industries, which had been targeted for strict limits by then-President Barack Obama’s administration in a bid to reduce carbon emissions.