According to The Hill and other news organizations, “President Obama will sign an executive order [today] ordering federal government agencies to slash their greenhouse gas emissions.”
“A White House official said the order is a way for the government to “lead by example” by curbing emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases believed to cause global warming.
“Several major companies that supply goods to the federal government will announce their own voluntary effects to cut greenhouse gases, the White House said.
“Since the federal government is the largest single consumer of energy in the country, its actions can make a major dent in the greenhouse gas emissions of the country as a whole.”
But according to The Federalist, the president is bypassing the Constitution, and that the “president, who believes that climate change is the greatest threat facing mankind, was unable to rally Democrats majorities in both houses to pass cap-and-trade legislation when he had a chance.”
POLITICO says the president is hoping for the “broadest, farthest-reaching deal in history, reworking environmental regulations for governments and corporations around the world and creating a framework for global green policy for decades.”
Even Lawrence Tribe, Obama’s liberal constitutional scholar at Harvard University, said at a hearing Tuesday that “EPA carbon dioxide regulations are tearing the Constitution apart.”
“EPA possesses only the authority granted to it by Congress,” Tribe told lawmakers. “Its gambit here raises serious questions under the separation of powers… because EPA is attempting to exercise lawmaking power that belongs to Congress and judicial power that belongs to the federal courts.”
“Burning the Constitution should not become part of our national energy policy,” Tribe added. The new executive order would effect industries doing business with the U.S. government.
