Ohio Asks Supreme Court to Intervene for EPA Rule

Joe Biden could soon experience yet another defeat on his very aggressive “green” agenda.

The state of Ohio is leading a suit that is going before the Supreme Court in an effort to block a new EPA rule introduced by this administration.

Ohio has since been joined by 20 additional states in the lawsuit.

The Good Neighbor Plan

In March 2023, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) the final version of the “Good Neighbor Plan,” which was written to reduce emissions to neighboring states. In introducing this rule, the EPA explained:

“The Good Neighbor Plan ensures that 23 states meet the Clean Air Act’s ‘Good Neighbor’ requirements by reducing pollution that significantly contributes to problems attaining and maintaining EPA’s health-based air quality standard for ground-level ozone (or ‘smog’), known as the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), in downwind states.”

The rule has been in litigation almost from the second it was issued.

Ohio and the other 20 states in the lawsuit submitted their plans on how the states would be moving forward to meet the new standard set by the EPA, but all 21 plans were rejected.

The EPA then published its own plan for the states, which led to the lawsuit being filed against the EPA on behalf of the states.

There is an existing precedent on this from 2022, where the Supreme Court ruled against the EPA in a suit filed by West Virginia, ruling that the EPA did not have the authority to regulate emissions from state power plants.

Oral arguments on the matter were heard on February 21, so we can expect a decision to come down from the court during the summer.

Based on previous rulings, my gut here is that the ruling will wind up coming down 6-3 in favor of the states and it will be along ideological lines.

What's your gut telling you?

Let us know in the comments section below.