White House Emissions Party Partly Downed by Brown

Well, it doesn't look like Janice Rogers Brown will be quite the White House tool that some were suspecting:

A federal appeals court blocked the Bush administration's four-year effort to loosen emission rules for aging coal-fired power plants, unanimously ruling yesterday that the changes violated the Clean Air Act and that only Congress could authorize such revisions.

The bench comprises Judith W. Rogers, David S. Tatel and Janice Rogers Brown. Of course, Brown made her name as one hostile to women's rights and civil rights in general and was one of the agreed appointments of the Gang of Fourteen deal. It was expected that she would be a disaster. But this is a pleasant, if potentially rope-a-dope, surprise.

Rogers opinion carried some blustery words for the White House, which is always fun to see:

EPA's approach would ostensibly require that the definition of 'modification' include a phrase such as 'regardless of size, cost, frequency, effect,' or other distinguishing characteristic. Only in a Humpty Dumpty world would Congress be required to use superfluous words while an agency could ignore an expansive word that Congress did use. We decline to adopt such a world-view.

Do you think George has any idea who Humpty Dumpty actually is?