Analysis: Four key U.S. Supreme Court rulings will make it made it harder to counter climate change and pollution

These Supreme Court decisions just made it harder to solve climate change Four key rulings limiting federal power will curtail the ability of the EPA and other agencies to write and enforce climate policies. Akielly Hu Grist

The Supreme Court on Monday weakened a law protecting federal regulations from lawsuits, granting the companies governed by those rules more time to challenge them. The move effectively eliminates any statute of limitations on rules issued by a wide range of federal agencies, potentially placing even long-standing regulations in legal peril.

That ruling came just days after the court, in a seismic decision, overturned the Chevron doctrine. The decades-old legal precedent provided the basis for regulations governing countless aspects of daily life, from the environment to labor protections. These decisions, coupled with two others issued last week, could sharply curtail the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies to limit air pollution, govern toxic substances, and set climate policy.