The Supreme court has ruled against an Obama administration effort to limit toxic mercury emissions from power plants, saying the costs of compliance with regulation should be taken into account.

In a 5-4 decision, the court sided with industry and 23 states that challenged the Environmental Protection Agency over the rules for oil- and coal-fired utilities, which the EPA estimated would cost $9.6 billion dollars annually. The states and industry groups said the cost estimate far outweighed the benefits the rules would produce, estimated at $4 million to $6 million per year.

The courts majority agreed, saying the EPA interpreted the regulation “unreasonably when it deemed cost irrelevant to the decision to regulate power plants.”

NPR’s Nina Totenberg has this background on the case, Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency:

“The regulations have been in the works for nearly two decades. Work on them began in the Clinton administration, got derailed in the George W. Bush administration, and then were revived and adopted in the Obama administration.

“The regulations were subsequently upheld by a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., last year.

“They stem from 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, which ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to expedite limits on power plant emissions of mercury and 188 other dangerous air pollutants.

“Mercury is considered one of the most toxic pollutants because studies show that when it falls from the atmosphere, it readily passes from fish and other sources to a pregnant woman’s unborn fetus and the fetal brain, causing neurological abnormalities and delays in children. The EPA estimated that 7 percent of American women of childbearing age — millions of women — were being exposed to the pollutant in dangerous amounts.”

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A report obtained by NPR paints a bleak portrait of Puerto Rico’s economic future, saying its deficit is much larger than previously thought.

“Puerto Rico faces hard times,” says the report which was commissioned by the Government Development Bank and written by three former and current International Monetary Fund economists. It is to be released on Monday.

“Structural problems, economic shocks and weak public finances have yielded a decade of stagnation, outmigration and debt. Financial markets once looked past these realities but have since cut off the commonwealth from normal market access. A crisis looms,” it says.

Following the report’s release, Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla is preparing to give a major speech, in which he’s expected to say Puerto Rico can no longer afford to pay off its $73 billion in debt on time.

“The debt is not payable,” Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla told The New York Times. “There is no other option. I would love to have an easier option. This is not politics, this is math.” He also said he will ask its creditors for more time to pay off what it owes.

The island has borrowed heavily over the years, issuing bonds to pay for pensions and government services, even as its economy shrunk and its population grew smaller.

Its debt load is now by far larger per capita than any of the 50 states. Its bonds were considered attractive because Congress allowed them to be issued free of federal, state and local taxes.

“The economy is in a vicious cycle, where unsustainable public finances are feeding into uncertainty and low growth, which in turn is raising the fiscal deficit and the debt ratio,” the report says.

It adds the government needs far-reaching economic reforms, but even so will have trouble paying its debts in the years to come.

On Wednesday, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority is due to make a $400 million payment to condholders, money it reportedly does not have.

The interview by Garcia Padilla, coupled with the troubles in Greece, could lead to a tumultuous day in the bond markets on Monday.

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