The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in the Ohio v. EPA case – which has to do with the EPA’s “Good Neighbor Rule” (more about that in a moment!)
The biggest thing you need to know is that the conservative majority appointed by Trump cherry-picked this case in an extremely unusual manner, seemingly just so they could rule in favor of fossil fuel heavy states (i.e. red states) over clean energy heavy states (i.e. blue states).
The Supreme Court is doing everything within its power (and sometimes reaching beyond what should be the limits of its power) to stop our climate progress!
So what is the “Good Neighbor Rule,” you might ask? To put it simply, this EPA rule says that red states and blue states must meet similar standards when it comes to air quality and make sure our air is clean no matter what state you live in! Without this sort of level setting, a dirty state that is upwind of a clean state could effectively export its pollution to the clean state and make it that state’s problem to deal with.
Now, some red states are asking the Supreme Court to overturn the Good Neighbor Rule. What they don’t understand is that pollution doesn’t care about state borders, it affects every one of us and we all deserve to have clean air.
We can’t have a system where one state is allowed to pollute more than others and let their smog travel across their borders into our lungs. We all should be following the same rules.
If you agree we need to protect the “Good Neighbor Rule,” please chip in to support the SEEC Members in Congress who are fighting to protect these important climate regulations!