Part of the Series
Planet or Profit
Given that 2015 is already on a trajectory to become the hottest year on record, and recent studies revealed the “imminent” collapse of the Larsen B and Larsen C ice sheets in Antarctica, today’s US Supreme Court ruling against Environmental Protection Agency pollution rules for power plants is alarming, to say the least.
The pace of human-caused climate disruption is accelerating by the day. One would think that, if those in power had any hope of mitigating the impacts of our super-saturation of the planet’s atmosphere with record levels of CO2, the EPA’s attempts to curb power plant emissions would be given priority.
To see more stories like this, visit “Planet or Profit?”
For the record, the EPA rules meant to regulate hazardous air pollution and mercury releases from coal- and oil-fired power plants were not exactly strict. Given that industrial civilization is in the process of literally pushing record numbers of species – possibly even our own – into extinction, “lowering” pollution levels emitted from power plants is no miracle solution. Shutting down the polluters entirely and mandating renewable energy on a global level might seem a little more appropriate.
Nevertheless, the Supreme Court neglected to affirm even the tepid EPA rules. The court voted 5-4 against the EPA, in a decision that prevents the agency from enacting new rules aimed at reducing the amount of dangerous mercury and other toxic pollutants in the air over the United States. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia agreed with the fossil fuel industry on this one, writing, “EPA must consider cost – including cost of compliance – before deciding whether regulation is appropriate and necessary. It will be up to the agency to decide (as always, within the limits of reasonable interpretation) how to account for cost.”
Hence, by Scalia’s logic (and, of course, that of the fossil fuel industry), the only “cost” that matters in terms of power plants is how their bottom line might be impacted. Other “costs,” like the fact that the summer ice pack in the Arctic will likely begin seeing ice-free periods starting as soon as next summer, or that planetary species are going extinct at rates beyond those of the “Great Dying” Permian Mass Extinction event, which wiped out over 90 percent of life on earth, are clearly not as important.
Instead, the country’s utility industry argued, and will continue to argue, EPA rules meant to regulate their pollutants cost them too much money. The industry, now backed by the US Supreme Court, believes that any regulations over hazardous air pollution belching out of power plants are no longer “appropriate and necessary.”
Perhaps the next question for the fossil fuel industry and the US Supreme Court will be this: When Miami is underwater from sea level rise, California can no longer grow fruit and vegetables due to its mega-drought, and interstate water battles over what is left of the drying Colorado River plague the Southwest, will regulating pollutants then become “appropriate and necessary?”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy