Supreme Court nominee on the environment

In the July 10 edition of Bloomberg Environment, writer Fatima Hussein notes that in the 2017 case Mexichem Fluor v. EPA, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh wrote an opinion that concluded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has no authority to require companies to replace refrigerant chemicals with more sustainable alternatives. In the opinion, Kavanaugh wrote:

“The Supreme Court cases that have dealt with EPA’s efforts to address climate change have taught us two lessons that are worth repeating here. First, EPA’s well-intentioned policy objectives with respect to climate change do not, on their own, authorize the agency to regulate. The agency must have statutory authority for the regulations it wants to issue. Second, Congress’s failure to enact general climate change legislation does not authorize EPA to act. Under the Constitution, congressional inaction does not license an agency to take matters into its own hands, even to solve a pressing policy issue such as climate change.”