An opinion piece in today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal online suggests that states refuse to comply with President Obama’s regulatory regime on climate change ‚Äì and embrace a strategy known as “nullification” in Constitutional law parlance.
Headlined, Climate Change Putsch, the WSJ piece notes that the President has not even sounded public opinion on the matter, which, increasingly, is skeptical of claims of man-made climate change.
“Mr. Obama is using his last 18 months to dictate U.S. energy choices for the next 20 or 30 years. This abuse of power is regulation without representation,” the paper’s opinion page notes in its Review & Outlook feature. “The so-called Clean Power Plan commands states to cut carbon emissions by 32% (from 2005 levels) by 2030. This final mandate is 9% steeper than the draft the Environmental Protection Agency issued in June 2014. The damage to growth, consumer incomes and U.S. competitiveness will be immense—assuming the rule isn’t tossed by the courts or rescinded by the next Administration.”
According to the paper’s editors, states have good reason to avoid “collaborating in a scheme” that will result in higher prices for all Americans. The regulations, the administration has to know, the paper adds, will be deemed unlawful by the courts. But the White House couldn’t care less about the rule of law, in the final months of Obama’s tempestuous tenure. The climate change campaign is a ruse.
“States can help the resistance by refusing to participate. The Clean Air Act is a creature of cooperative federalism, and Governors have no obligation to craft a compliance plan,” the paper opines. “The feds will try to enforce a fallback, but they can’t commandeer the states, and they lack the money, personnel and bandwidth to overcome a broad boycott. Let’s see how much ‘clean power’ the EPA really has.”
