Court Orders To Redo Air-Pollution Limits --Madeleine Norton, 4th period

It has come to the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in several cases that issues dealing with air pollution need to be resolved. In the past year, therefore, court rulings with the EPA have circled the matter and have come to various conclusions depending on the case. 

For instance, the associated press for Fox News observed that "A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to relax some limits it set on smokestack emissions that cross state lines and taint downwind areas with air pollution from power plants. At the same time, the court upheld the EPA's right to impose the clean-air standards, rejecting an argument by states and industry groups that the rule was overly burdensome. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit orders the EPA to redo sulfur-dioxide and nitrogen-oxide standards for 13 states, mostly in the South and Midwest, that contribute to soot and smog along the East Coast." The article further explains that this ruling is a one-up for the Obama administration in that the federal government has won over the states. However, the issue will hopefully be resolved if, as intended, the states can be "good neighbors and (not) contribute to pollution problems elsewhere."

This can be easily synthesized with examples in the past such as the early workings of the Articles of Confederation and the later creation of the U.S. Constitution, and the struggle between the power of the states and that of the federal government (otherwise known as federalism). Overall the powers are divided pretty fairly betwixt the two, but similarly to how the court ruled against states being able to control the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, agreements in our constitution give the U.S. government some powers to be able to limit the states and provide for the general welfare of the nation as a whole.

The following article contains further information surrounding the EPA and air-pollution ruling: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/07/28/court-orders-epa-to-redo-air-pollution-limits-in-13-states/