Business

In their decision, the high court’s six conservative justices invoked what they called the “major questions” doctrine to declare that agencies such as EPA need explicit congressional approval before “asserting highly consequential power” over almost any policy area. But they did not offer a precise definition of what would cause a regulation to qualify as major — a question that agencies and lower courts may now need to spend years wrestling with. “The major questions doctrine is clearly in its ascendancy and it operates as a distinct constraint on agency power,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who successfully led a multistate coalition in the challenge to EPA, said in an interview. Before the ruling, liberal legal scholars had feared that the Supreme Court would unleash ...

Biden framed the fight against the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet as one of his highest priorities, alongside combating the pandemic. But those ambitions suffered a major blow last week when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) rejected plans to spend $300 billion to expand clean energy incentives. And last month, the Supreme Court erected legal obstacles to the federal government’s ability to regulate carbon dioxide from power plants, the second largest source of the greenhouse gas. “As president, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger. And that’s what climate change is about. It is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger,” Biden said. His comments come as more than 100 million Americans swelter under 100-...

“This is the time when people want their expectations raised and they want something delivered,” said Blumenauer, who has long urged Biden to declare a climate emergency. Supporters of the move note that 39 countries have already declared climate emergencies, as have nearly 200 U.S. cities and counties. “The president has an ability to protect our country when our national security is threatened,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) told reporters Monday. “And clearly, the climate crisis is a threat to national security.” Biden isn’t going the emergency route for now, the White House says. Instead, he used his speech on Wednesday in front of a coal-plant-turned-wind-power project in Somerset, Mass., to announce efforts to power more homes using offshore wind, expand programs for low-income households...

The site selection is intentional: The Brayton Point Power Plant once burned coal for electricity, but is now a manufacturing center for offshore wind. It reflects Biden’s messaging on climate, as he sees it as a jobs winner that can put trades people like electricians and steelworkers in growing fields, all while curbing planet-heating gases. But Biden is stopping short of acceding to pleas from progressive activists to declare a climate emergency that would give the administration vast powers to redirect spending to climate initiatives, halt fossil fuel exports and use wartime authority to make clean energy products. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the climate emergency option and other actions remain on the table. Yet achieving Biden’s climate goal to curb emissions ...