It didn’t take long for the tRump Supreme Court to begin its campaign of rolling back protections for the public in favor of big corporations. Announced March 4, the Supreme Court has ruled the Environmental Protection Agency has “overstepped” its authority under the Clean Water Act. The Republican-controlled Supreme Court voted 5-4 in favor of San Francisco, saying “the agency has adequate tools to obtain needed information from permittees without resorting to ‘end result’ permits. The Guardian reports that “end result’ is a new term coined by the court.
That means the Supreme Court MADE IT UP!
The court said the EPA overstepped its authority with water
pollution permits that contain vague requirements for maintaining water quality,
preferring specific requirements. The
permit in question was to limit generic discharges of raw sewage into the
Pacific Ocean after heavy rains.
Raw sewage? Who wants
any E. coli or fecal matter in their drinking water. What part of ZERO do they not
understand? Any level of those
contaminants can be harmful. I agree that it might be difficult to limit
discharges after heavy rains but to relieve San Francisco of any responsibility
is reckless and dangerous.
Amy Coney Barrett was the only conservative to dissent. Not surprising, Neil Gorusch voted in favor
of rolling back protections. If that name
is familiar, it is because he is the son of Anne Gorusch, who was EPA
Administrator during the Regan era. She cut the EPA’s budget by
22% and reduced the number of cases filed against polluters. Do you recall the character Dioxin Dolly,
played by actress Audrie Neenan, from Not Necessarily the News?
Gorusch hired people from the industries they were supposed
to be regulating. Now that does that
sound familiar! Scott Pruitt. Andrew Wheeler. And the list goes on.
This is just the start, people. Lee Zeldin, appointed by tRump and sworn in
as EPA Administrator in January, is a climate-change denier, zero science education,
and tRump boot-licker. This ruling doesn’t
affect just San Francisco. It sets a precedent
that will have far reaching consequences.
Ignoring facts or a serious lack of understanding puts us
all in danger. Look for reductions in
protections for air and soil.
References:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/04/epa-ruling-sewage-water
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/04/politics/supreme-court-san-francisco-poop-epa/index.html
