Buzzfeed echoed several liberal environmentalism organizations with their concerns of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Kavanaugh, saying he is “widely seen as unfriendly to environmental regulation.”
“On the environment, Kavanaugh is likely to be hostile to regulation of pollution, climate, and endangered animals,” the article reads. “And in past cases over the last decade, Kavanaugh has argued that climate and environmental regulation is a legal overreach.”
Buzzfeed quoted Center for Biological Diversity senior counsel and law professor at American University Bill Snape who said that Kavanaugh "is pretty consistently anti-environment on every front," taking the accusation a step further than just him being against environmental regulation.
Buzzfeed states that Kavanaugh invalidated Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on “air pollution that crosses state lines, arguing that the agency had overstepped its authority and siding with power companies” in a 2012 ruling.
But they don’t actually reference Judge Kavanaugh’s comments on the ruling.
“EPA’s uniform cost thresholds have required states to reduce pollutants beyond the point necessary” which “violates the Supreme Court’s clear mandate,” Kavanaugh said in his statement.
Kavanaugh is referring to the Supreme Court decision in Environmental Protection Agency v. EME Homer City Generation which reversed The Clean Air Act rule that directed the EPA “to establish national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for pollutants at levels that will protect public health.”
Judge Kavanaugh upheld the precedent set by the Supreme Court in the EME Homer case in which the majority opinion was given by one of the Court’s most liberal justices, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Buzzfeed also mentions the 2016 case of West Virginia vs. E.P.A., a lawsuit filed by 28 states and hundreds of companies and interest groups against President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
“The policy is laudable,” Judge Kavanaugh said in his ruling on the case. “The earth is warming. Humans are contributing. I understand the international impact and the problem of the commons.” However,
“If Congress does this, they can account for the people who lose their jobs. If we do this, we can’t.”
President Trump said in Kavanaugh’s nomination speech “What matters is not a judge’s political views, but whether they can set aside those views to do what the law and the Constitution require. I am pleased to say that I have found, without doubt, such a person.”
