Western Massachusetts environmental group decries Supreme Court climate change ruling

The co-founder of a western Massachusetts environmental group called a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on power plant emissions "a tragedy and a travesty. "

The court decided on Thursday that the federal Environmental Protection Agency lacks the authority to strictly regulate carbon emissions from power plants.

Susan Theberge, who is with Climate Action Now of western Massachusetts, said the decision was an attack on all of life.

"The whole world will be hit by this because the United States really needs to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels and this decision is going to put us way behind in what we have to do," she said.

Theberge said while Massachusetts doesn't have the coal-burning power plants of states like West Virginia, there is one across the commonwealth's northern border in Bow, New Hampshire.

She said her group is now focused on limiting another part of the fossil fuel infrastructure. It's opposing a natural gas pipeline Eversource Energy wants to build in Springfield and Longmeadow.