US Court Questions Obama’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Policy

U.S. Supreme Court justices questioned whether the Environmental Protection Agency had authority to impose permit requirements on power plants and factories in a test of President Barack Obama’s climate-change agenda.

In a 90-minute session sprinkled with references to football games and Dunkin’ Donuts, the court today heard arguments from industry groups and Republican-led states over one aspect of the agency’s effort under the Clean Air Act.

The justices hinted they might rule narrowly, perhaps by allowing greenhouse-gas limits on facilities that already must get a permit for other types of emissions. The justice likely to provide the swing vote, Anthony Kennedy, asked just a handful of questions. Early on, he suggested he wasn’t interested in revisiting the court’s 2007 decision letting the EPA regulate carbon emissions.