Federal courts hand down decisions impacting home appliances, renewable energy and petroleum

The Supreme Court declined to rule on two court cases Monday involving energy development, while a federal appeals court blasted the Biden administration’s appliance efficiency standards.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Monday sided with 11 red states that sued the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) over its promulgated efficiency standards for dishwashers and washing machines, ruling that “it is unclear the DOE has any statutory authority to regulate water use in dishwashers and clothes washers.”

The court also stated in its opinion that, even if it does have that authority and the agency had water-usage authority over these appliances, it failed to consider the “negative consequences” of the standards, which would have the opposite effect of their intent.

“The administrative record contains ample evidence that DOE’s efficiency standards likely do the opposite: They make Americans use more energy and more water for the simple reason that the purported ‘energy efficient’ appliances do not work,” the ruling explained.

The Biden administration has committed extensive attention to reducing the energy and water use of just about every appliance in the home, including gas stoves, dishwashers, air conditioners, refrigerators, light bulbs, washing machines, microwaves and furnaces.

In March 2018, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the Daily Caller reported, proposed standards for new dishwashers that would run faster cycles, which would increase energy and water consumption. The Trump administration adopted guidelines that aligned with the CEI proposal, but President Joe Biden repealed those standards in 2021. It then went on to propose its own, more stringent standards.

Devin Watkins, attorney with CEI, said in a statement that the decision will bring benefits to consumers.

“We hope that its newly-announced rulemaking proceeding will end up improving consumer choice, allowing people to purchase dishwashers that clean quickly and well,” Watkins said in a statement. The DOE did not respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a request from the American Petroleum Institute’s to get a climate lawsuit filed by Minnesota moved to federal court.

Minnesota alleges that by selling and promoting oil and gas to people who buy it, the defendants are defrauding the public, resulting in harm to the state and citizens as a result of climate change. Minnesota is asking the energy firms to give up any profits they make from the sale of products it says are dangerous.

The court didn’t provide details on its decision to deny certiorari, only noting that Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Republican appointee, would have granted the companies’ request.

Writing at the “Volokh Conspiracy,” Jonathan Adler, law professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said that the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have rejected similar requests in other cases, and the Supreme Court has shown little interest in reviewing the decisions.

Adler argued that the Supreme Court has previously ruled that federal environmental laws do not preempt state law claims against polluters, and that the authority to preempt state-level lawsuits about climate change rests with Congress.

Former U.S. Attorney William Barr and Adam White, senior fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, had opined in the Wall Street Journal that the case belongs in federal court, because energy policies should not be set by federal, state or local judges, but rather through the Constitution's democratic processes. Moving the case to federal court, the authors argued, would ensure that happens.

The Supreme Court also declined without comment to hear a request from the State of Alaska to review the EPA’s veto of the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine in Bristol Bay.

In July, according to E&E News, Alaska’s Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy asked the high court to reverse the EPA’s block on Pebble and other extraction projects on state land in southwestern Alaska.

The EPA’s veto was issued under the authority of the Clean Water Act, and Alaska officials argued that it violated the state’s ability to regulate its own land and waters. The court didn’t mention any dissent.

Rick Whitbeck, Alaska state director for Power The Future, an energy advocacy group, criticized the Biden administration’s EPA for undermining the state’s ability to develop its resources.

“It’s the disgusting way the Biden Administration picks winners and losers among Indigenous groups. If you are an anti-development, anti-jobs, and wilderness-above-everything tribe or organization, you get whatever you want,” Whitbeck told Just The News.

Whitbeck said that the administration ignores Alaskan voices who are “pro-jobs, pro-responsible development,” and in favor of “hand ups rather than hand outs.”

“They claim to prioritize tribal consultation, but they consistently ignore groups in Alaska and elsewhere who don’t preach their big government, ‘there is a climate crisis’ message,” he said. The state had skipped review by appellate courts and took the case directly to the high court.

In a statement, Dunleavy said Alaska will continue to fight what he called “flagrant overreach,” and that the state is confident lower courts will find against the EPA.

Gold and copper are vital to the Biden administration’s goal of transitioning the U.S. to clean energy, yet it has killed a few major mining projects that would help develop domestic sources of these critical minerals.

“At a time when federal administrations are fast-tracking renewable energy development, the careful production of copper and other rare minerals, like those found in the Pebble area, is more important than ever,” Dunleavy said.

Thank you for referencing that article Twotone.

"... ruling that “it is unclear [??? emphasis added] the DOE has any statutory authority to regulate water use in dishwashers and clothes washers."

FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument

First, the bottom line...

Consider that political party and media fuss about "obsolete" electoral college is because the electoral college is the only thing stopping the corrupt political parties from establishing a permanent puppet presidency that will unquestioningly sign unconstitutional taxing and spending bills into law.

Getting back to the judges...

Respectfully to the judges, except for the politically correct corruption of the first numbered clause in the Constitution, post-FDR era federal regulatory agencies like DOE have no express constitutional authority to exist imo.

"Article I, Section 1: All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives [and non-popularly-elected bureaucrats running Federal Reserve, IRS, EPA, BLM, FDA, NIH, CDC, FWS, DHS, DOL, USDA, FCC, FTA, FTC, DOE, etc. [emphasis added]."
"From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added]." —United States v. Butler, 1936.

Corrupt lawmakers probably long ago discovered that they could avoid taking responsibility for the legislative powers that post-17th Amendment ratification voters trusted them with if lawmakers established constitutionally undefined federal regulatory agencies run by non-popularly elected bureaucrats who steal state powers to oppress the people with unconstitutional, unpopular federal edicts.

In fact, regulatory agencies undoubtedly helped to foster the emergence of criminal-minded career lawmakers imo.

This is why Democratic and Republican Trump supporters need to effectively tell Congress, "YOU'RE FIRED!," by primarying ALL of them in 2024, except for MTG, Gaetz & Company (and others?), replacing them with Constitution-respecting patriots who will not only support hopeful Trump 47 to finish draining the swamp, but will also do the following.

New lawmakers additionally need to support Trump in leading the states to put a stop to unconstitutional federal taxes and unconstitutional interference in the affairs of the sovereign states by effectively "seceding" ALL the states from the unconstitutional big federal government by repealing 16A along with the 17th Amendment (17A; popular voting for federal senators).

Consider the repealing of 16&17A as part of reparations for victim taxpayers of the unconstitutionally big federal government for having to pay a lifetime of unconstitutional federal taxes, taxes that Congress cannot reasonably justify under its constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers and a few other constitutionally enumerated expenses.

"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
“ If the tax be not proposed for the common defence, or general welfare, but for other objects, wholly extraneous, (as for instance, for propagating Mahometanism among the Turks, or giving aids and subsidies to a foreign nation, to build palaces for its kings, or erect monuments to its heroes,) it would be wholly indefensible upon constitutional principles [emphases added].” — Justice Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution 2 (1833).
From the congressional record:
”Simply this, that the care of the property, the liberty, and the life of the citizen, under the solemn sanction of an oath imposed by your Constitution, is in the States and not in the federal government [emphases added]. I have sought to effect no change in that respect in the Constitution of the country.” —John Bingham, Congressional. Globe. 1866, page 1292 (see top half of third column)
“Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. If once they become inattetive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors, shall all become wolves [emphasis added]. It seems to be the law of our general nature.” - Thomas Jefferson (Letter to Edward Carrington January 16, 1787)
Pelosi: "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." (non-FR; 6 sec.)
Democrats [and RINOs] Are Terrified Of An Educated And Informed Public (3.12.23)

In fact, consider that since one of the very few powers that the states have expressly constitutionally given to the big, bad federal government to dictate peacetime domestic policy is to run the US Mail Service (most federal domestic policy actually based on stolen state powers imo), the worst problem that the country would otherwise be looking at with a new Congress of Trump-supporting freshman lawmakers is arguably that citizens that would get into the habit of lightheartedly questioning if the federal government has shutdown if they receive their mail a few days late.

"Article I, Section 8, Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;"
"From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added]." —United States v. Butler, 1936.

The definition of insanity is reelecting your beloved career state and federal lawmakers and executives over and over again, expecting those same politicians to find remedies for unconstitutional government policies every time.

Let's not allow ourselves to be fooled for third time in this election year by the corrupt, constitutionally undefined political parties that have pirated control of state and federal governments.

Again, consider that corrupt political party and media fuss about "obsolete" electoral college is because the electoral college is the only thing stopping the corrupt political parties from establishing a permanent puppet presidency that will unquestioningly sign unconstitutional taxing and spending bills into law.

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