Supreme Folly - 223

 Physics is blind and incorruptible. The rules were set at creation and have never changed. For individuals, nations, and generations who understand the rules of nature, success is assured.

Courts are manmade entities and as such are imperfect. Courts generally deliver justice but there have been moments in history when injustice was inflicted by the Supreme Court. Despite the best intentions of our founding fathers to create an honest judicial system there has been corruption.

The six fossil fuel Republican Supreme Court members, by eviscerating the power of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has made it nearly impossible for the EPA to protect our young citizens and future generations from the ravages of climate change. While the recent ruling against the EPA in “West Virginia vs the EPA” may not have been corrupt it was, at a minimum, stunningly science ignorant.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the world’s preeminent climate science authority supported by all reputable science organizations worldwide. The IPCC continues to warn us of the consequences of governmental inaction to curb greenhouse gasses, (ghgs).  “The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on the adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.”

The IPCC, along with all reputable science organizations, and our U.S. EPA know the physics of climate change. This is what they went to school to understand. They are highly trained for their jobs and have been given the tools and budget to do their job. They work in collaboration with NASA and NOAA. There is no one who knows science better.

The federal government has recognized the need to protect our air and water since the 1960s. Congress also recognized the need for a science-based team. In response, a professional agency was created to protect the air, water, and land. Congress created the EPA. More than half of EPA's employees are engineers, scientists, and environmental protection specialists; other employees include legal, public affairs, financial, and information technologists.

In 1970 Republican President Richard Nixon signed the EPA and Clean Air Act into law. Up until this recent ruling the Supreme Court has generally recognized the EPA’s expertise and supported its responsibility to regulate ghgs in cases like Chevron vs The Natural Resources Defense Council, and Massachusetts vs the EPA.

When you think about it this was a no-brainer. The Clean Air Act is this, “An Act to improve, strengthen, and accelerate programs for the prevention and abatement of air pollution, as amended.”

But the six Republican Justices, in a folly of shaky reasoning, decided to end 50 years of precedent. This recent ruling nullifies the work of our science savvy public servants. By refusing to support the congressionally created agency, the Supreme Court is legislating against the agency created through legislation by Congress.

And the timing could not be more irresponsible, ignorant, or in opposition to public opinion. The need to change is now, the reasoning to obstruct the work of the EPA is weak and in violation of precedent. And today over 70% of the United States citizens support tackling the climate threat by reigning in ghgs as noted recently by a Yale study.

What can we do? New legislation supporting the science-based EPA is needed. Republicans are heavily funded by Big Coal, Oil, and Gas as documented by Open Secrets. It is hard to imagine any Republican jeopardizing tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of oil dollars fueling their political machines.

This means if the undone work of reducing greenhouse gasses is to move forward, we must vote for Democrats. They can only pass legislation when they have the votes needed to overcome Republican anti-science obstructionism.

Regarding the Republican members of the Supreme Court, they have proven themselves simultaneously science ignorant while amazingly imaginative at concocting obstructionist legal mumbo-jumbo. If they persist obstructing the public servant scientists at the EPA, then we must add four more members to the Supreme Court who are not science ignorant.

It is survival now. We must be more creative with our solutions than the Republican Court is imaginative and obstructionist. We must meet folly with Democratic votes.