by Steve Milloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As appearing on The Daily Caller
The Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument on Feb. 28 as to whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can regulate emissions of greenhouse gases from coal plants under the Clean Air Act. It’s an opportunity for the Court to make right the gross constitutional error it committed in 2007.
The convoluted saga begins in 1998 when the global warming-fretting Clinton administration EPA prepared a legal opinion concluding that it had the authority to regulate emissions of greenhouse gasses pursuant to the Clean Air Act, despite the fact that Congress had never expressly authorized the agency to do so.
In 1999, a number of green activist groups petitioned the EPA to implement that legal opinion. Although the Constitution provides the right to petition the government, the Constitution does not require that the government even respond to such petitions. One reason agencies don’t respond is because if they do, they can be hauled into court over their response under a law called the Administrative Procedures Act.
