Kenneth Foard McCallion, an environmental lawyer who efficiently litigated instances involving the Exxon Valdez and Bhopal Gasoline disasters, discusses the implications of the latest Supreme Court docket choice in West Virginia v. Environmental Safety Company. In a 6-3 choice in West Virginia v EPA, the conservative justices determined the company can’t create complete insurance policies to cut back world warming. McCallion argues that the Supreme Court docket has “dealt a physique blow to this nation’s local weather change insurance policies.” The irony is that the Court docket claims it’s returning energy to the states and folks when 68% of Individuals surveyed by Pew Analysis Heart in 2019 mentioned they imagine authorities needs to be performing to “cut back the impact of worldwide local weather change.” Even 39% of Republicans who responded to that survey agree the federal government isn’t doing sufficient. Congress has relied on specialists in businesses just like the EPA to formulate insurance policies in response to quickly altering scientific perception into the atmosphere as a result of laws takes too lengthy to develop. Now, the Court docket has undercut that authority.
Kenneth discusses how the Court docket tipped over to an ideologically charged conservative majority and the prospects for brand new rules to struggle local weather change after the ruling. He additionally has recommendation about what odd residents can do to affect Congress, state legislatures, and municipal leaders to move legal guidelines and fund packages to cut back emissions, restore nature, and counter the ideological choices coming sooner or later from the Supreme Court docket. His new ebook, Saving the World One Case at a Time, which recounts his profession preventing polluters and representing Holocaust survivors and Gulf Warfare veterans, is on the market now from Amazon and Powell’s Books.
