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This article is about a recent Supreme Court ruling about air pollution. The question in this case was who should pay for air pollution that crosses state lines? In a 6-2 majority ruling the Justices agreed that states in the Midwest and South whose polluted air flows north and east must follow a federally imposed solution. This solution includes slashing ozone and fine particle emissions. However, most of these 28 states that are included under this federally mandated rule are not too happy. These states believe that the EPA is issuing a solution for them before the states themselves even had a chance to come up with their own plan of action. Like it or not these states are going to have to comply with the rules. Afterall, just as we've recently learned, theres no higher court than the Supreme Court. Therefore, they have the final say; what they say goes. Furthermore, federal law trumps state laws and since these are federally mandated rules the states must abide by them.
In my opinion I think the question is a bit bizarre in the first place. How are we to place blame on specific states for air pollution when air is mobile? I definitely agree that we as a nation and even more so as a world should cut back on our ozone and particle emissions. As of right now, we only have this planet and its time to start acknowledging that and start treating our home accordingly. I think it is a little stupid to place blame on only 28 states. Rather every state in the nation should abide by these rules in order to make the Earth a healthier place to live. By placing blame on specific states it turns them against each other when instead, we should all be coming together for the greater purpse of improving the planet we live on.
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