The U.S. Supreme Court just gave fossil fuel giants everything they ever wanted — and gave democracy a smog-choked middle finger in the process.
In a 6–3 decision released this week, the Court ruled that federal agencies cannot interpret ambiguous legislation to justify new climate rules, effectively gutting the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to limit carbon emissions.
→ https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5326566-supreme-court-fossil-fuels-climate-change-trump/
The ruling doesn’t just impact environmental regulation. It rewrites the rules for how every federal agency — from the FDA to the SEC — is allowed to operate. In legal shorthand, this kills Chevron deference, a decades-old doctrine that let agencies fill in the blanks Congress didn’t.
In real terms: no more forward-leaning climate enforcement. No bold new emission caps. No fast response to melting coastlines or megadroughts. Just… wait for Congress. The same Congress that can’t pass a budget without threatening civil war.
The lawsuit was backed by fossil fuel industry groups with strong ties to Trump-era appointees. Justice Neil Gorsuch, whose mother once ran the EPA into the ground under Reagan, wrote a concurring opinion that read like a libertarian pamphlet.
And Trump? He’s not in the courtroom, but his fingerprints are all over this.
Three of the six justices in the majority were appointed during his term. This isn’t a policy win — it’s a structural power grab. The kind that keeps polluters rich, keeps regulatory hands tied, and makes sure the “free market” remains free to burn everything.
Environmental groups are calling the ruling “catastrophic.” So are coastal city mayors, tribal leaders, and entire climate-vulnerable nations. But for the Koch network, ExxonMobil, and the think tanks feeding on deregulation, it’s Christmas in June.
Even some conservatives admit the ruling goes too far. “We’ve just invited chaos,” said one former Bush-era EPA adviser. “Every agency now faces paralysis while we wait for a gridlocked Congress to do its job — which we all know it won’t.”
This isn’t just a legal opinion. It’s a death sentence — slow, gaslit, and profit-driven.
And the justices won’t smell the smoke. Their chambers are climate-controlled.