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The Final Word by Chuck Swann
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US Supreme Court nominee, if confirmed, may serve for decades

We at Paperitalo Publications do not take or espouse political opinions in these columns. However, we can and do examine likely effects on the pulp and paper industry from positions taken by political figures. That is why we feel free to quote Reuters News Service in an article about Brett Kavanaugh, nominated by President Trump to the US Supreme Court. Reuters calls him "a long-time skeptic of business regulations, especially on rules limiting harmful emissions, although he has called global warming an "urgent" issue.

Naturally, there are pro and con positions on Kavanaugh's nomination.

Pro: "The selection of Judge Kavanaugh shows that the Trump administration is serious about taming the administrative state," said Johnathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University.

Con: Michael Brune, president of the Sierra Club, said Kavanaugh is "an extreme ideologue who has time and again proven himself hostile to common-sense environmental safeguards."

Supreme Court appointments are for life. If confirmed by the Senate, Kavanaugh could serve for decades and have a major say over environmental regulations issued by future presidents, long after Trump has left office. He has questioned environmental regulations issued by former president Barack Obama and the legal reach of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

In 2017, as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Kavanaugh wrorte a ruling that struck down a rule regulating hydrofluorocarbons use in spray cans and air conditioners. Scientists say they contribute to climate change.

In 2012, he disagreed with the Court of Appeals' decision to uphold the Obama administration's first efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. He said that the EPA had exceeded its authority in seeking to regulate carbon emissions under a specific EPA program. He stopped short of saying the agency could not regulate greenhouse gas emissions altogether, however. He wrote that "The task of dealing with global warming is urgent and important."

We shall see; first, what the Senate does about his nomination; and, second--if confirmed--how he may vote on the bench about environmental and climate change questions which undoubtedly will come before the Supreme Court.

Chuck Swann is Senior Editor at Paperitalo Publications.

 

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