We all want clean air and clean water. But obviously, proper regulation of such matters cannot be reasonably prescribed by our federal courts.
Eight of our 50 states joined in a lawsuit (though two later dropped out), objecting to emissions from several electricity-generating power plants, including some in the Tennessee Valley Authority area. The complainants wanted to curb “global warming” allegedly caused by releases of carbon dioxide, and they said the plants were hindering those efforts. So the states wanted federal courts to regulate the plants.
But the Supreme Court reasonably said courts are not the proper institutions to decide such issues.
It said the Environmental Protection Agency “is surely better equipped to do the job than individual district judges issuing ad hoc, case-by-case injunctions. Federal judges lack the scientific, economic and technological resources an agency can utilize in coping with issues of this order.”
We don’t want pollution, but we obviously also do not want to force the shutdown of electric power-generating facilities that we all need, nor to put the cost of electricity out of reach through undue regulation.