While it is bracing for the Supreme Court to act like this, it is sadly not a new trend. Both of these trends — denying scientific expertise and siding with "big money" over common sense — began in the early 21st century, when powerful political leaders realized humanity's excessive release of greenhouse gases was dangerously overheating the planet.
More than 20 years ago, a historic battle within the White House over how to classify carbon dioxide had profound reverberations that humanity still feels today in the form of climate change worsening and science denialism increasing. It took place during the height of the George W. Bush Administration, when the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was a famously moderate Republican, former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, who eventually left the agency out of frustration.
