Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-1530_n758.pdf
Page Number: 34

28 

WEST VIRGINIA v. EPA 

Opinion of the Court 

Act of 2009, H. R. 2454, 111th Cong., 1st Sess.; Clean En-
ergy Jobs and American Power Act, S. 1733, 111th Cong.,
1st  Sess.  (2009).    It  has  also  declined  to  enact  similar 
measures, such as a carbon tax.  See, e.g., Climate Protec-
tion  Act  of  2013,  S.  332,  113th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.;  Save  our 
Climate  Act  of  2011,  H. R.  3242,  112th  Cong.,  1st  Sess. 
“The importance of the issue,” along with the fact that the 
same basic scheme EPA adopted “has been the subject of an
earnest and profound debate across the country, . . . makes
the oblique form of the claimed delegation all the more sus-
pect.”  Gonzales, 546 U. S., at 267–268 (internal quotation 
marks omitted). 

C 
Given these circumstances, our precedent counsels skep-
ticism toward EPA’s claim that Section 111 empowers it to 
devise carbon emissions caps based on a generation shifting 
approach.  To  overcome  that  skepticism,  the  Government
must—under the major questions doctrine—point to “clear
congressional  authorization”  to  regulate  in  that  manner. 
Utility Air, 573 U. S., at 324. 

All  the  Government  can  offer,  however,  is  the  Agency’s
authority  to  establish  emissions  caps  at  a  level  reflecting 
“the application of the best system of emission reduction . . . 
adequately  demonstrated.”  42  U. S. C.  §7411(a)(1).    As  a 
matter of “definitional possibilities,” FCC v. AT&T Inc., 562 
U. S. 397, 407 (2011), generation shifting can be described 
as  a  “system”—“an  aggregation  or  assemblage  of  objects
united by some form of regular interaction,” Brief for Fed-
eral Respondents 31—capable of reducing emissions.  But 
of course almost anything could constitute such a “system”; 
shorn of all context, the word is an empty vessel.  Such a 
vague statutory grant is not close to the sort of clear author-
ization required by our precedents. 

The Government, echoed by the other respondents, looks 
to  other  provisions  of  the  Clean  Air  Act  for  support.  It