February 3, 2016

Heartland Institute experts comment on petition to halt President Obama’s ‘Clean Power Plan’

 

A group of 27 states and state agencies – as well as the Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, and a dozen other groups and associations – is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to stay implementation of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) regulations. The petitioners argue the CPP rules represent an overreach by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“President Barack Obama came to the White House promising the ‘fundamental transformation’ of America. In his quest to leave a meaningful – if questionable – legacy in the face of congressional opposition, the president continues to browbeat the country with his phone and his pen, seeking to impose unilaterally as much of his agenda as possible in the short year remaining him through administrative action and executive order.

“What the president forgets is that the will of the people, expressed through Congress – the legislative branch of the federal government – is the source of all federal lawmaking power in this country, not the presidential phone and pen.

“If ever a case existed for the courts to intervene with equitable relief – in this case a stay of the lower court’s ruling – it is here, where the jobs of the people, the nation’s ability to meet its energy needs, and a coherent environmental and energy policy are at stake, and a refusal to grant the stay becomes effectively irreversible.

“To do otherwise would be a triumph of ideology over economics and of tyranny over democracy – yet another usurpation of the constitutional order.”

David L. Applegate
Policy Advisor, Legal Affairs
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000

“Crippling our most inexpensive source of energy on the basis of mathematical models constructed by scientists – heavily supported by the federal government, with no substantial physical evidence that our carbon dioxide emissions are upsetting the balance of nature – is economic suicide for the United States, not to mention the thousands of Americans who will be put out of work.

“The Heartland Institute has compiled thousands of pages of peer-reviewed literature indicating that increasing carbon dioxide emissions are not altering the temperature of our planet. The president’s actions are unconscionable and incorrect, truly aimed at bringing the U.S. economy down to the level of less-fortunate nations.

“It is one of many last-gasp efforts in a lame-duck year to bring the country to where Obama desires it to be, rather than toward the prosperity envisioned for it by our founding fathers.”

Jay Lehr
Science Director
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000

“The Supreme Court should take the unusual step of granting the stay until the courts have fully adjudicated the matter because the rule itself sets arguably unconstitutional precedents. As it did with its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), the Obama administration is counting on the court allowing the rule to proceed until final adjudication.

“Because utilities have such long investment and operation-planning horizons, they will likely shut down coal-fired power plants well before final adjudication in the courts. Once the plants are shut – even if the Supreme Court ultimately throws out all or part of the Clean Power Plan – it will be too late, a repeat of the MATS action. Plants shut down, even if later allowed, will not be restarted.”

H. Sterling Burnett
Research Fellow, Environment & Energy Policy
The Heartland Institute Managing Editor, Environment & Climate News
[email protected]
800/859-1154

“Society should only adapt and be responsive to proven science, not to politically driven so-called science.”

Walter Cunningham
Apollo 7 astronaut and author
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000

“The Obama administration has received so many judicial smack-downs in response to its far-reaching regulatory actions – though some, such as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), were too late to make any real difference – the states are wise to petition the Supreme Court for a stay.

“We can hope and pray that the justices look at the history and block the implementation of the Clean Power Plan – which aims to totally transform the way energy is generated, regulated, distributed, and used in America. Such sweeping regulations shouldn’t move forward when more than half of the states oppose it.”

Marita Noon
Executive Director
Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy
[email protected]
505/239-8998

“Applying the word ‘clean’ to the president’s plan to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) constitutes fraud. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is non-toxic, harmless to human health, odorless, invisible, and absolutely essential for growth of all plants. Without CO2 life is impossible.”

S. Fred Singer
Senior Fellow, Environment
The Heartland Institute
Director/Founder
Science and Environmental Policy Project
[email protected]
312/377-4000