Carper Statement on Supreme Court Ruling in Ohio v. Environmental Protection Agency

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, today released the following statement after the Supreme Court of the United States granted a stay of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Good Neighbor Rule for Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana. The Good Neighbor Rule would reduce harmful smog-forming pollution in “downwind” states from power plants and other industrial facilities in “upwind” states. 

“When I was privileged to serve as governor of Delaware, I could have shut down every emission source in our state, and we would still have been out of attainment with ozone air health standards because of upwind states’ dirty emissions. Air pollution is bad for our health, bad for our planet and bad for the economy, and there’s no question that downwind states need cooperation from our upwind neighbors to have clean air to breathe. That is why the EPA issued the Good Neighbor Rule — to ensure that states follow the ‘Golden Rule’ and treat their neighbors the way they would like to be treated.

“This extreme court is once again chipping away at EPA’s ability to do its job as Congress directed it to do with the Clean Air Act. Today’s decision is not only unnecessary as Justice Barrett points out in the dissent, but it also ignores the reality that air pollution knows no state boundaries and is a violation of the Golden Rule. The court’s radical decision today hamstrings EPA’s life-saving efforts to crack down on air pollution and puts the health of millions of Americans at risk.”

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