Here’s a complicated AP story in the Winston-Salem Journal on the Supreme Court’s decision to hear a case involving Duke Energy power plant emissions.
The article subtly editorializes that the Bush administration is tripping itself over environmental policy:
Unfortunately for the administration, environmental groups persuaded the Supreme Court to take up the case over the objections of the government.
Now the administration’s switch is being aired at the court in politically painful detail in the case of Environmental Defense vs. Duke Energy Corp.
So we have the Bush administration arguing against Duke Energy in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and losing. Following that loss, the administration “proposed an industry-friendly rule that is along the lines of what Duke and other utilities always have wanted. Duke is highlighting the proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency in its briefs to the Supreme Court.”
It is technically true that the Bush administration proposed a utility-friendly rule. But was it not also following guidelines set by the lower court in order to avoid further litigation on the matter?
