In a major setback for President Obama and for people who like to breathe, the court (in a 5-4 decision split along party lines) struck down a set of recent EPA regulations aimed at limiting pollution from coal-fired power plants.
The justices embraced the arguments from the industry and 21 Republican-led states that the EPA rules were prohibitively expensive and amounted to government overreach.
The decision, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, ruled that the EPA did not reasonably consider the cost factor when drafting regulation.
The Clean Air Act had directed the EPA to create regulations for power plants that were "appropriate and necessary". The agency did not consider cost when making its decision, the court ruled, but estimated that the cost of its regulation to power plants would be $9.6bn a year.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by penguinoid on Tuesday June 30 2015, @07:19AM
Only the US considers property and money more important than life.
Every single country ever, and almost every individual, considers substantial amounts of property and money more important than life. For example, countries (and soldiers) fight wars. Even more so, people allow people in other countries to die from curable diseases or unsanitary water, and almost no one donates all but what they absolutely need to survive to prevent those deaths. Don't kid yourself -- most people value material goods over lives almost every second of every day, except when they have a personal connection to the life at stake.
RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.