“Clean Air Act Can’t Really Be Used to Protect Clean Air Now,” Says Leading Environmentalist

After a bitter 50-year fight over climate change policy, the Supreme Court delivered another win to the right wing on Thursday. In a 6-3 ruling, the Court decided that the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions for existing power plants. “The Clean Air Act can’t really be used to protect clean air now,” says leading environmentalist, Bill McKibben. He says fossil fuel tycoons have successfully lobbied against decades of progress and shifting public opinions. “The Koch brothers, our biggest oil and gas barons? That they're now winning it should be a signal, among other things, that is time for the rest of us to do what people did in 1970 and get out in the streets and in big numbers, to start being the backlash to this fallout.... the Koch brothers have figured out how to game the system so spectacularly, that they're rich and powerful minorities are more than enough to keep change from happening.”