‘Big Three’ Networks Ignore Supreme Court Ruling on EPA’s Emissions Regulations

On Monday, June 23, the Supreme Court ruled that while the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to mandate emissions controls on power-plants, it went too far in claiming the power to regulate smaller emitters. 

Despite the major ruling, none of the network evening newscasts, ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer, CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley and NBC Nightly News, covered the EPA ruling. On FNC's Special Report with Bret Baier, fill-in anchor Shannon Bream provided a summary of the ruling.

From the Wall Street Journal [1]:

The Environmental Protection Agency can require greenhouse-gas controls on power plants and other large stationary sources of pollution, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, but it said the agency went too far in claiming power to regulate smaller emitters. 

The court’s divided decision, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, followed a middle-ground approach that left both environmental groups and industry challengers satisfied...Justice Scalia and the court’s majority said the agency went to far in asserting authority that it could use in the future to regulate tens of thousands of smaller emissions sources, such as shopping centers, apartment buildings and schools. “We are not willing to stand on the dock and wave goodbye as the EPA embarks on this multiyear voyage of discovery,” Justice Scalia wrote.

Rather than cover the Supreme Court’s ruling on the EPA, ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer reported on a group of fisherman coming into contact with a 16 foot great white shark off of the coast of New Jersey. CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley ran a full report on a North Carolina man who left a notebook in a box 45 years ago hoping people would leave messages in it. Instead of covering the Supreme Court ruling, NBC Nightly News reported on a California dog reunited with its family after going missing more than a year and a half ago.