Executive authority was used because Congress blocked climate legislation

Evidence

Stymied by congressional opposition, President Obama exercised his executive authority to curb emissions through the EPA, which invoked its authority under the Clean Air Act to issue regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants in 28 states. In a constitutional challenge of the regulation, the Supreme Court upheld the authority of EPA to do so (Davenport, 2014c). However, this is not the end to what Peter Altman, the Natural Resource Defense Council’s climate director, called “the Super Bowl of climate politics” (Eilperin & Mufson, 2014). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2625

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘Super Bowl of climate politics’ and the regulatory ping-pong between branches could ground an essay on how institutional design scrambles accountability for environmental harm.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2625
• XREF: connects to: Presidential authority varies in strength across three zones defined by congressional disjunction — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2851; Congressional stalemate shifted environmental lawmaking power to appropriations riders. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 703; States stepped in to fill the federal environmental-regulatory void after Kyoto withdrawal — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 1095 (+1 more)