TO BE CONTINUED: While Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote in the Supreme Court, appeared skeptical of an Environmental Protection Agency rule aimed at greenhouse gas emissions from industry sources, predicting which way the court will rule remains tricky at best.
Kennedy said he “couldn’t find a single precedent that supports [EPA’s] position” by including greenhouse gases to be regulated under its permitting program for power plants, oil refineries and other sources.
{mosads}But the liberal justices on the court made the case that the different interpretations by the challengers of what qualifies as an air pollutant underscore the ambiguity of the law.
“This to me is the quintessential ambiguity in a statute where we give deference to the agency. So, if your side can’t come to one interpretation, why shouldn’t we defer to the agency?” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
E2-Wire has more on Monday’s oral arguments here.
ON TAP TUESDAY: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on adaptation to protect ecosystems and economies.
White House director of science and technology, John Holdren, will be among those testifying at the hearing along with a Fish and Wildlife Service official and others.
ON TAP TUESDAY II: The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) will host its fifth Energy Innovation Summit.
Guests include Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and White House adviser John Podesta. The two will participate in a fireside chat on innovative energy solutions the federal government hopes to tackle.
Also on Tuesday… A coalition bent on protecting Alaska’s Bristol Bay will hold a discussion on the recently released Environmental Protection Agency assessment.
The coalition makes the case that Clean Water Act protections are necessary to protect the fishery industry from devastating large-scale mining development.
AROUND THE WEB:
Bloomberg reports the world’s greatest emitter of carbon pollution is reaching “unbearable” levels of smog, said China’s adviser on climate change.
“China’s pollution is at an unbearable stage,” Li Junfeng, director general of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, said at a conference in Beijing on Sunday, according to Bloomberg. “It’s like a smoker who needs to quit smoking at once otherwise he will risk getting lung cancer.”
The Houston Chronicle reports BP announced on Monday that it began pumping crude oil from a new well in the Gulf of Mexico last week.
That marks the second major move in offshore development this year. The new well at one of BP’s four deep-water hubs is a piece of a larger multibillion-dollar investment that could increase Gulf production to record levels in the past two years.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Here’s what ran on E2-Wire on Monday …
— Obama, governors huddle on wildfires
—EPA threatens Pa. over pollution rule
— Justice Kennedy skeptical of EPA’s powers
—Study finds support in W.Va. for more regulations, even if it costs jobs
—Obama OKs nuke deal with Vietnam
—Obama hints at quick Keystone decision
— Colorado first state to regulate methane emissions
Please send tips and comments to Laura Barron-Lopez, laurab@digital-release.thehill.com.