May 3, 2014 2 min read

Despite nostalgia for the decades when manufacturing reigned supreme in this region, few of us would want to revisit those days when a white shirt would take on a grayish hue by noon thanks to all the pollutants floating in the air.

Our air is much cleaner than it was 40 or 50 years ago, but Pittsburgh and its surrounding counties still have a distance to travel in upgrading its quality. A recent report by the American Lung Association pegged the region as being poor, though improving.

One thing that could help in this regard is a decisive ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court last week allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate smog generated by coal-fired power plants in the eastern half of the United States.

By a 6-2 vote, with Justice Antonin Scalia and his wingman, Clarence Thomas, the sole dissenters, the justices affirmed the Obama administration can use the Clean Air Act to regulate emissions from coal plants that drift with the winds and pollute the air far from their point of origin. These same coal plants are also the primary generator of greenhouse gases that fuel climate change.

There has been a predictable hue and cry from coal industry advocates who say the rules will kill jobs, but, left unchecked, such plants will eventually kill us – the smog they generate has been linked to lung disease and asthma and is a contributor to premature death.

The conventional wisdom has it that the court’s ruling will help pave the way for additional regulations that would help combat global warming. Let’s hope so.