The court's ruling restricts the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal- and gas-fired power plants under the landmark Clean Air Act anti-pollution law.

In line with the series of sweeping decisions made over the past week, the court's six conservatives were in the majority with the three liberals dissenting.

Biden said the "decision risks damaging our nation's ability to keep our air clean and combat climate change" and that he directed his legal team to work with the Justice Department and affected agencies to review the Supreme Court ruling.

Steven Cohen is a former EPA consultant and Director of the Earth Institute's Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management at Columbia University.

"I think that climate change is an existential crisis. [FLASH] And this very ideological court is more concerned with limiting government than in dealing with this existential crisis."

The ruling was based on what is called the "major questions" legal doctrine that requires explicit congressional authorization for action on issues of broad importance and societal impact.

The ruling is likely to have implications beyond the EPA as it raises new legal questions about any big decisions made by federal agencies.