WASHINGTON/NEW YORK: The addition of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, moving it further rightward, could have significant consequences for US climate change policy and complicate the government's ability to regulate pollution, according to legal experts.
Barrett raised concerns among environmentalists during her confirmation hearing last week by refusing to give her views on climate change and whether human activities were contributing to it. A 6-3 conservative court majority could restrict expansion of the 1970 Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from stationary sources such as power plants, said Michael Gerrard, director of Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
That case focuses on a narrow procedural issue that does not address broader climate policy. Unlike some other conservative judges, Barrett has not openly criticised the Supreme Court's 1984 Chevron v Natural Resources Defense Council ruling establishing that judges should defer to federal agencies in interpreting law when a statute is ambiguous.
Energy companies are watching lawsuits related to the 1789 Alien Tort Statute, which lets foreign nationals sue in the United States in certain circumstances. Some recent court decisions curtailed the law's application in human rights claims against international corporations.