Posted on 07/27/2022 9:35:04 AM PDT by Heartlander
Less than a month after the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA, the White House is reportedly contemplating declaration of a “national climate emergency.” On July 20, at a former coal-fired power plant in Massachusetts, President Biden said, “Climate change is an emergency. And in the coming weeks I’m going to use the power I have as president to turn these words into formal, official government actions for the appropriate proclamations, executive orders and regulatory power that the president possesses.” Even if this only a trial balloon to appeal to progressives in an election year, it is troubling on multiple levels.
The administration would be acting without legislative authority to take what is fundamentally legislative action. As the Wall Street Journal has reported, pressure began mounting on Biden to declare an emergency only after Senator Joe Manchin announced his opposition to a suite of climate regulations. And as the Supreme Court has noted, the separation of powers tends to forbid the executive branch to address broad and transformational issues on its own.
That aside, it’s unclear how much of an impact the policies empowered by an executive declaration would make on climate change. Biden has already invoked emergency powers to remove tariffs on solar panels and to subsidize domestic manufacturing of renewable technologies. Any additional limits on U.S. fossil fuel production—or mandated transitions to wind and solar energy as well as electric vehicles—would have a marginal effect on the 11 percent share of greenhouse gas emissions that the U.S. contributes globally.
But the negative effects of such policies during the emergency timeframe would almost certainly outweigh any purported benefits. They would likely make energy more expensive, spur inflation, and even confound foreign policy—we are now negotiating to purchase oil from countries with interests hostile to the U.S., creating new vulnerability to energy blackmail. The questionable economics of wind turbine farms, the limited working time of solar power, and the challenges of backup are rarely discussed. Accelerating the transition to renewable energy has already introduced unreliability into our power grid, as we have seen in California and Texas (as well as in Ghana, where that nation’s entire economy has suffered from the embrace of unreliable renewables). Relying on electric vehicles involves huge subsidies and conveniently ignores the environmental costs of producing batteries and the significant costs of the needed infrastructure for charging.
There’s an old saying that desperate people do desperate things. When those people are politicians facing an election in which their party is likely to lose by a landslide, declaring some sort of emergency requiring drastic action might seem like a good idea. But it’s just bad piled on bad.
Show me in Article II the chief executive has the power do Dow what he wants without Congress.
Section 2
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
Section 3
He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
To do
As if unconstitutional acts of the feds are not a practical disaster in every-day life.
The federal government is over 80% unconstitutional in its acts and agencies. Hard to find ONE example where any of this unconstitutional portion of the feds hasn't been more harmful than beneficial.
The fact is unconstitutional federal government acts are very harmful to the American People on a day-to-day basis.
The fact is the states and the people are much better equipped and safer to handle every one of those unconstitutional federal acts and agencies, keeping government interference at a minimum and individual freedom at a maximum.
And Congress ONLY has the LIMITED powers DELEGATED and ENUMERATED to it by the Constitution.
If it ain’t in the Constitution, it ain’t a federal power. Period. (See the 10th Amendment.)
THAT is why 80%+ of the feds are unconstitutional.
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