To react to the Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia v. EPA that the executive branch can’t regulate carbon emissions at power plants without Congressional authorization, Katy Tur Reports guest host Yasmin Vossoughian welcomed radical climate scientist Michael Mann to accuse the “reactionary, activist” Court of taking away the right to a livable planet.
Vossoughian introduced Mann and West Virginia by lamenting, “U.S. carbon emissions are on pace to spike again this year and the Supreme Court just made it much harder for the U.S. government to do anything about. In one of the most important environmental decisions in years, the justices preemptively curbed any regulations the Biden administration might consider to limit carbon emissions at power plants.”
Mann began by decrying this “awful day” and then turned from climate scientist to legal analyst, “Look, you know, what the Supreme Court has done here, what this reactionary, activist Supreme Court has done is to remove yet another fundamental right that we have as citizens. They've removed the fundamental right to privacy, they've removed a fundamental right to safety from gun violence, and they've removed a fundamental right to a livable planet.”
The right to bear arms is in the Constitution, abortion and Mann’s preferred environmental policies are not. In West Virginia it was a separation of powers question, unless you are Mann then it is just another example of why Republican donors are bad:
It's ironic in that some of the regulations that they are basically now preventing the executive branch from implementing against carbon pollution were actually put in place by Republican presidents. George W. Bush, his EPA administrator, Christine Todd Whitman, recognized that carbon pollution was a pollutant to be regulated under the Clean Air Act and began to initiate efforts to do that and then what we saw thereafter was an effort by fossil fuel companies to take over the party and ever since then what we've seen is Republicans and this Republican-dominated Court now basically preventing the executive branch from being able to protect its citizens against threats, including the fundamental threat of the climate crisis.
Only the media could think that the Court forcing lawmakers to make laws constitutes an “awful day.”
This segment was sponsored by Colonial Penn.
Here is a transcript for the June 30 show:
MSNBC Katy Tur Reports
6/30/2022
2:46 PM ET
YASMIN VOSSOUGHIAN: All right. Let's talk the Supreme Court once again. U.S. carbon emissions are on pace to spike again this year and the Supreme Court just made it much harder for the U.S. government to do anything about. In one of the most important environmental decisions in years, the justices preemptively curbed any regulations the Biden administration might consider to limit carbon emissions at power plants.
Joining me to talk more about this, Michael Mann, director of the Earth Systems Science Center. He's also the author of The New Climate War. I’m going to bet, Michael, you’re not necessarily happy about the Supreme Court decision. Tell us why.
MICHAEL MANN: Yeah, I'd like to say it's good to talk with you, Yasmin, but this is an awful day. It's a day that many of us suspected were coming, was coming, but still feared the day that it would arrive. Look, you know, what the Supreme Court has done here, what this reactionary, activist Supreme Court has done is to remove yet another fundamental right that we have as citizens.
They've removed the fundamental right to privacy, they've removed a fundamental right to safety from gun violence, and they've removed a fundamental right to a livable planet.
And you know, it's ironic in that some of the regulations that they are basically now preventing the executive branch from implementing against carbon pollution were actually put in place by Republican presidents. George W. Bush, his EPA administrator, Christine Todd Whitman, recognized that carbon pollution was a pollutant to be regulated under the Clean Air Act and began to initiate efforts to do that and then what we saw thereafter was an effort by fossil fuel companies to take over the party and ever since then what we've seen is Republicans and this Republican-dominated Court now basically preventing the executive branch from being able to protect its citizens against threats, including the fundamental threat of the climate crisis.
