State Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-10th dist.) issued the following statement in response to the Supreme Court of the United States’ decision in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency:
“The Supreme Court’s decision today in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency represents another major departure from established legal precedent and ignores the clear will of Congress in passing the Clean Air Act, which gave discretion to the EPA and its environmental experts to implement reasonable measures to protect our environment.
“This politically motivated Supreme Court majority is again out of step with the majority of Pennsylvanians and Americans. We cannot further delay reasonable and scientifically valid regulations to address the imminent and present dangers climate change poses to our economy, our environment, our national security and indeed our way of life.
“Here in Pennsylvania, the environmental amendment in our state Constitution is clear: ‘The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic, and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come.’
“I will continue to work with my colleagues in the General Assembly to ensure those rights are protected and that we do all we can to combat the devastating effects of climate change we feel every day.”
The ruling was 6-3, with the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts. Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer (who retired on June 30) and Elena Kagan, as usual, voted together in opposition.
