"Clean Power Plan" placed on hold by Supreme Court in partisan decision

An article in this month's issue of The Economist outlines the details of a recent Supreme Court decision to pause implementation of the Obama Administration's "Clean Power Plan".  A semi-ambitious plan to help the US cut 870 millions tons of carbon emissions from power plants (as measured against 2005 levels) by 2030, the Clean Power Plan met with resistance, mostly from coal producing states.  The Supreme Court decision was reached along partisan lines, with the 5 conservative judges voting for a pause, and the 4 liberal judges against.

This article is worth reading for several reasons.  First of all (and most relevantly to this blog) it demonstrates how politics is intertwined with the future of our environment, and briefly details some of the arguments for and against environmental legislation.  Essentially, there is a human cost on both sides of the equation.  If we continue to pollute the environment by burning coal for energy, as an example, increasingly more of the world will become uninhabitable - a human cost.  However, the economic cost - which is also a human cost - of switching immediately to clean power would be huge, especially for coal producing states.   And the economic repercussions would be felt by the mostly poor and poorly educated coal miners and their families.  We need environmental regulations, and we need "Clean Power".  However, we need to be extremely prudent in their application, and we need to make sure the States and the Government are working together as - mostly - equals.

That last point is another reason to read this article, considering our recent discussions of Federalism in class.  This case is an example of how the power of the States is balanced with the power of the Government, through the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court's decision - albeit partisan - tempers the power of the Government and allows for both sides to save face.  The States are tacitly and reluctantly accepting the legislation, however, they are asking for - and getting - more time to implement it.  The Government is in turn going to get it's way - eventually - but not as quickly as it had hoped.  There is general agreement between the States and the Government that we need the Clean Power Plan; it just needs some adjusting before we implement it.  Necessary, not (yet) Proper.