Chief Justice Roberts Upholds EPA Air Pollution Regulation

Given that it's not a formal hearing, nor an actual lawsuit that is before the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts had sole discretion to hear or not hear the petition.

Power plants are the largest source of mercury in the United States, the EPA said, and "Mercury is a neurotoxin that can damage children's developing nervous systems, reducing their ability to think and learn".

"This is a pretty strong way of sending a signal that the fact that the court granted a stay of the Clean Power Plan was highly extraordinary, and they don't want to be inundated with these", said Jeffrey Holmstead, a lawyer with the firm Bracewell and a deputy administrator of the EPA in President George W. Bush's administration. The so-called "MATS" rule affects some 580 coal-fired power plants nationwide, including 38 in Pennsylvania. Residents of those states are, apparently, less important than the potential profits that are lost by scaling back the release of the mercury, chromium, and arsenic.

The Supreme Court in June ruled that the EPA had failed to run a cost-benefit analysis of a rule limiting emissions of mercury and other pollutants. The mercury regulation "has imposed literally billions of dollars of compliance costs on utilities (and by extension on all members of the public who use electricity), and even if a similar rule is lawfully imposed at some time in the future, the quite substantial time-value of that money has already been lost and is irrecoverable", the states wrote.

Since the Supreme Court denied the request, the DC Circuit Court will continue to hear the case, and is expected to review an amended "Mercury and Air Toxics Rule" submitted by the EPA sometime in April.

Environmental groups and 15 other states that had asked the court to reject the stay request applauded Roberts' action and called on the attorneys general in the group of states led by MI to end their legal challenge to the rule.

The EPA is "very pleased" about the development, EPA Deputy Press Secretary Laura Allen said Thursday.

However, this change is not in effect, years after the issue was raised.

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What do you think was Johnathan's motivation behind this freaky , risky behavior onboard an aircraft? Tafoya-Montano reported a fire in a rear lavatory on the aircraft and extinguished the flames.


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