Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

Denver, CO—On the final day of perhaps the most controversial term in its history, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia vs. Environmental Protection Agency severely restricts the U.S. EPA’s ability to address the climate crisis by limiting the agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources.

In response, WildEarth Guardians’ Executive Director, John Horning, issued the following statement:

“We are outraged and saddened by the reckless and blatantly biased actions of the U.S. Supreme Court. In several decisions over the last week that sent shock waves across the country, the conservative court majority repeatedly took rights away from the people, advanced its agenda to dismantle the administrative state, and upended long-established judicial precedent. The Supreme Court has taken a series of extreme and dangerous steps, unmoored from precedent and indifferent to the welfare of the people.

The EPA ruling exposes the majority’s bias in favor of fossil fuel industry profits over public health and a livable climate. To reach its conclusion that EPA overstepped its authority in the Clean Power Plan, the majority cherry-picked language from the Clean Air Act and the Court’s prior decisions to create support for a pre-determined outcome, ignoring the Court’s long-established practice of interpreting statutes to give effect to Congress’s intent.

Although on its face the EPA ruling appears to restrict only EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under one section of the Clean Air Act, the majority’s complete disregard for the foundational principles of judicial decision-making erodes the legitimacy of the highest court in the land. In her dissent, Justice Kagan succinctly stated the long-term implications of the majority’s decision, “The Court appoints itself—instead of Congress or the expert agency—the decision-maker on climate policy. I cannot think of many things more frightening.”

The EPA ruling is the final decision of a term in which the court issued multiple radically reactionary rulings that reverse well-settled judicial precedents. The rulings destroyed long-held constitutional rights-to privacy and to the rights of women’s freedom of choice, to the separation of church and state, to public safety, and significantly restricted the nearly 200 year-old precedent affirming that Native American tribes are sovereign nations. This has done as much damage to the Supreme Court as it has to the rights of the people.

In his dissent in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, the ruling diminishing tribal sovereignty, Justice Gorsuch noted that “where this Court once stood firm, today it wilts.” But the Court has not merely “wilted” this term, its slash-and-burn approach to people’s rights and the Court’s own well-settled judicial precedent is like nothing this country has ever witnessed.

In light of the EPA ruling, WildEarth Guardians calls on President Biden to use his authority to broadly assert the responsibility of the government and his administration to act decisively to stem the climate crisis. He must declare a climate emergency, reinstitute a pause on fossil fuel leasing, halt pipelines and continue to invest in and advance clean, affordable, renewable energy that serves the people of this country. Federal agencies must have the ability to safeguard our land, air, water, the climate, and public health.

More generally, we believe that President Biden must also issue executive orders and take other actions that reaffirm tribal sovereignty, the right to privacy, the right of health equity and freedom of choice, the right to be safe in public places, and the need to keep church and state separate.

Our nation is at a crossroads. We need a more representative government that is led by people who believe that the relentless expansion of liberty and equality are central to the health of our democracy.  WildEarth Guardians calls on all citizens to register to vote, to enroll others to vote, to run for office, and to vote this fall for representatives who will respect the rule of law and the rights of people while recognizing the responsibility the government owes people of the world to protect our precious planet.”