The Supreme Court dealt a huge blow to the Biden administration’s climate change agenda ruling Thursday that The Environment Protection Agency does not have the authority to mandate carbon emissions from existing power plants meaning they cannot pass sweeping regulations without congressional approval.
In a 6-3 decision, The U.S. Supreme Court limited the power of the Executive branch,
“Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible ‘solution to the crisis of the day,’” Chief Justice John Roberts said in the Court’s opinion. “But it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme in Section 111(d). A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body.”
The ruling on West Virginia v. the Environmental Protection Agency sets a precedent limiting the broad powers the alphabet agencies have, including the Centers For Disease Control (CDC), and Congress – not unelected D.C. bureaucrats and federal agencies – will now decide on important policies that impact Americans.
The case involves Barack Obama’s’ Clean Air Act environmental law which was intended to fight climate change and was predicted to cost upwards of $33 billion a year. The plan would slash greenhouse gas emissions while essentially killing fossil fuels like coal.
Two coal companies and 17 U.S. states led by major coal producer West Virginia petitioned the Supreme Court to limit the EPA’s broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal- and gas-fired power plants, saying the plan was an abuse of power.
The High Court’s ruling puts a snag in Biden’s plan to eliminate fossil fuels and replace them with renewable energy and much like the Roe v. Wade decision, will put the power of those decisions back in the hands of the American people by making legislatures present their case publicly, reveal the full costs of their plans and ultimately answer to the American public.
This also means that agencies like the FDA and the CDC could now face similar suits challenging their over-reaching power grabs and lock tight regulations. Think Vaccine mandates and Covid-19 lockdowns.
The ruling is a huge victory for the fossil fuel industry and nixes Biden’s plan to deep-six it by setting aside $550 billion in his “Build Back Better” plan to enact climate change programs that included large portions of Bernie Sander’s Green New Deal.
