For GOP, Supreme Court Case on Climate Goes Way Beyond the Environment

  • Coal companies, GOP states seek curbs on EPA’s authority
  • Court may boost conservative effort to roll back federal power

A front loader moves coal at a surface mine in Oakland City, Indiana.

Photographer: Luke Sharrett/
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A U.S. Supreme Court argument Monday has the potential to give conservatives a new lever to slash the power of federal regulatory agencies with ramifications that reach far beyond the environmental issues at hand.

Coal-mining companies and Republican-led states are seeking sharp limits on the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants. That would jeopardize President Joe Biden’s pledge to halve those emissions by the end of the decade.