by Steve Milloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As appearing in the Daily Caller
President Trump took two major steps this week to end the 14-year-old Democrat war against the coal industry and cheap electricity. Although greens have promised to sue, they are unlikely to succeed as the moves have pretty much been pre-approved by the Supreme Court.
First, EPA proposed to roll back all greenhouse gas emission standards for coal plants. The Obama EPA first issued climate emissions standards for coal plants in August 2015. These rules didn’t last long as they were stayed by the Supreme Court in February 2016.
Although President Trump proceeded to replace the Clean Power Plan with the much less expensive and more practical Affordable Clean Energy rule in June 2019, that effort was rejected by the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in January 2021. But that turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory for climate activists.
In June 2022, the Supreme Court invalidated the Clean Power Plan in West Virginia v. EPA on the basis of a first-time used constitutional theory called the major questions doctrine. Under that doctrine, unless a regulatory agency can point to express authorization from Congress for a major regulatory program, the program is unconstitutional and cannot be implemented. The Clean Power Plan had no such authorization.
