WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court today issued a ruling in West Virginia v. EPA holding that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) prior attempt to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants was improper without further authorization from Congress. The 6–3 decision, with the Court's three liberal members dissenting, limits the policy tools EPA can use to address the ongoing climate crisis.

The ruling also carries implications for Massachusetts v. EPA, the landmark 2007 Supreme Court decision that determined that greenhouse gases emissions qualified as pollutants under the Clean Air Act that EPA can regulate. That groundbreaking decision was the result of a legal petition written and filed by Center for Food Safety's original, and now sister organization, the International Center for Technology Assessment, in 1999. Overnight, conversations in the highest echelons of authority changed from "should we address climate change" to "what is the best way to try and address the climate crisis."

The following is a statement from George Kimbrell, legal director at Center for Food Safety:

"Today's catastrophic decision by the Supreme Court's reactionary supermajority guts EPA's ability to do its job and actually be the Environmental Protection Agency—on what is the greatest and most pressing environmental and social crisis of our time. This includes the significant portion of the climate crisis caused by industrial agriculture, which has long received a pass for its harmful emissions.

Despite today's decision, there is much that can and should still be done: In response, we urge the Biden administration and Congress in the strongest terms possible to take immediate action using every possible tool to address the climate crisis, including the impacts from industrial agriculture, and including the communities most affected.

The climate crisis is a humanitarian crisis and an ecological crisis of the highest order. We must build a new, regenerative food future that heals our planet. We will continue to do everything we can to address it through our public interest mission."