pollution

The U.S. Supreme Court, 6-2, has upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to limit interstate pollution, the Washington Post reports. Richard Lazarus, an environmental law professor, told the Post the rule allowing the EPA to regulate pollution sent into downwind states from upwind states is "one of the most significant rules ever" promulgated by the EPA.

Oxfam's Emily Greenspan writes about threats to a Peruvian law requiring the consultation of indigenous people before development occurs. Peru is apparently considering foregoing such consultation in its most productive oil block. "This would violate Peru’s indigenous peoples’ consultation law and the human rights of the indigenous communities inhabiting the area, as articulated in the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples," Greenspan writes. There already has been extreme pollution in that block: "Oil companies have dumped millions of barrels of production waters directly into the Tigre, Corrientes, Pastaza, and Marañon rivers in Block 192 over the last four decades," Greenspan further writes.
 

The Hill reports on the oral arguments held in the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday on the authority for the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate pollution that crosses state lines. The case could be tied because Justice Samuel Alito Jr. recused himself, leaving four justices each from "the bench's liberal and conservative wings," The Hill also reports. 

At issue is a rule by the EPA requiring 28 states to cut back on their coal-fired power plants that "'contribute significantly'" to the air problems in other states, The Hill also reports.

The U.S. Supreme Court is going to hear oral arguments tomorrow about the cross-state feud over pollution, USA Today reports. At issue is the Environmental Protection Agency's rule that "as many as 28 upwind states, mostly in the Midwest and South, ... slash ozone and fine particle emissions for the benefit of their Middle Atlantic and Northeast neighbors," the newspaper reports.

According to USA Today, 24 states want the circuit court ruling striking down the rule upheld by the justices. But nine states and six cities are asking for the rule to be reinstated.