SCOTUS axes Obama administration's EPA clean air regulation

In a huge defeat for the Obama administration's environmental agenda, the Supreme Court on Monday struck down forthcoming EPA regulations concerning emissions of mercury and other toxins, ruling 5-4 that the EPA did not properly consider the costs of regulating such emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The court's debate centered around whether the EPA should have considered costs when directed by Congress in the Clean Air Act to take any "appropriate and necessary" action in establishing a regulation. Opponents had argued that benefits were as low as $4 million a year. Meanwhile, many older coal plants with outdated technology would have been forced to close, reducing generating capacity and hiking the cost of electricity for consumers.

The EPA argued that the regulations could save 4,200 to 11,000 lives annually from respiratory diseases and the like, and result in benefits of as much as $90 billion.

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The decision is expected to have an impact in other areas in which the EPA seeks to push aggressive regulations under the Clean Air Act.