This decision could have a heavy impact on global warming. The highest jurisdiction of the United States decided, Thursday, June 30, to limit the means of the federal State to fight against greenhouse gases. Its six conservative judges ruled, against the advice of their three progressive colleagues, that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could not enact general rules to regulate emissions from coal-fired power plants, which produce nearly 20% of electricity in the United States. Enough to leave the different states of the country the right to enact their own rules in this area.
This controversial decision constitutes a new conservative turn of the screw on the part of the Supreme Court. On Friday, the highest American court had buried a judgment which, for nearly half a century, guaranteed the right of American women to have an abortion. In the process, several American states had announced that they were taking measures to prohibit voluntary terminations of pregnancy on their territory. This decision had caused a worldwide emotion among defenders of women’s rights.