Supreme Court Blasts EPA for Crippling Regulations

The Supreme Court has rejected a move by the Obama administration to limit emissions from many power plants.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been trying to force power plants to block mercury and other possible air pollutants.

But the court ruled the EPA went too far, saying they failed to consider the high costs of their regulations. The ruling sends the case back to lower courts for the EPA to decide how to account for costs.

In the case of mercury, the costs of installing and operating equipment to remove the pollutants before they are dispersed into the air are hefty - $9.6 billion a year, the EPA found.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that it's wrong to impose billions of dollars of economic costs for a few dollars in health or environmental benefits.

"The agency must consider cost - including, most importantly, cost of compliance - before deciding whether regulation is appropriate and necessary," Scalia said.

Some coal plants already have been shut down by companies citing the mercury rule. It is unknown if any plant closures would be reversed or new pollution controls removed if the industry's argument continues to prevail.

In Wyoming, the nation's leading coal-producing state, Gov. Matt Mead said he hoped the EPA would give more consideration to the rule's potential economic harm.

"Companies and thus customers have already paid in part the price of this," the Republican governor said. "We're hopeful that in the future, that EPA will take a closer look on what the states have asked for."