An upcoming Supreme Court ruling could stop Biden’s climate overreach

With the potential overturn of Roe v. Wade on the horizon, the nation’s eyes are turned to the Supreme Court. But there are more decisions likely coming out this week that could transform federal powers.

One is West Virginia v. EPA, which could end Obama’s Clean Power Plan for good and limit the ability of the Biden administration to shut down coal power plants and remake our electric grid through draconian and meaningless limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

Scaling back the Biden administration’s climate chokehold on domestic energy producers would be a godsend for the national economy, especially as the American people struggle to cope with record-high gas prices and crippling inflation.

Unfortunately, it would also unleash a media frenzy spreading unscientific, anti-American climate hysteria.

The state of West Virginia’s lawsuit correctly argues that the federal government has engaged in unconstitutional overreach by acting as if the Clean Air Act governs GHGs. In fact, the Clean Air Act is completely silent on greenhouse gases and, as its name suggests, was clearly limited to actual pollution — substances that affect air quality and human health. No greenhouse gas falls into that category.

The Supreme Court’s 2007 ruling in Massachusetts vs. EPA that GHGs were air pollutants and could be regulated under the Clean Air Act violated congressional intent and created unprecedented, unconstitutional bureaucratic power for the EPA. This error has cost Americans dearly in the form of higher energy costs. It’s not just gas prices and electric bills — the cost of energy influences the cost of everything we buy.

Ruling in West Virginia’s favor would be great news for the American people, both for our pocketbooks and for the integrity of our Constitution. Even a narrower ruling would significantly limit the EPA’s ability to use GHG emissions mandates to force utilities to retire coal plants and switch to using more wind and solar. A broader ruling could limit the EPA’s ability to regulate GHG emissions from all stationary sources.

Regardless of the ruling, we should be prepared for an unprecedented level of collusion between activist environmentalist groups, big corporations, and the mainstream media attempting to convince us that it undermines the urgent effort to prevent a “climate catastrophe.”

We can see from the media’s selective coverage of climate science and sycophantic coverage of the ESG movement — which bullies businesses into to compliance with progressive narratives instead of simply providing a good product or service — how these left-leaning behemoths already march in lockstep on climate change. Apocalyptic headlines about dire warming are already reaching a fever pitch, misconstruing complex climate data to get clicks and ad revenue. Whether intentional or not, the vast majority of climate reporting supports the false claim that “the science is settled” and that consensus is all that matters.

But science that’s settled ceases to be science at all. Remember the scientific method from grade school, which was all about proving hypotheses wrong?

A deep dive into the climate science used to claim the end is nigh shows the alarmist narrative can easily be proven wrong — though, of course, the radical climate movement cares little about the facts.

We must fight back against this unscientific hysteria with both compassion and facts.

Here’s the good news.

The United States is a world leader in clean air. Over the last five decades, we’ve cut harmful airborne pollution by 78% — progress made across bipartisan administrations and while our population, economy, and energy industries grew.

The human condition is stronger than ever before with lower poverty rates, better health and nutrition, better education, and more economic freedom all over the world.

And when it comes to climate change, the news is still good. Exaggerated headlines about lethal heat waves, flooding, wildfires, and even islands shrinking haven’t panned out. Instead, warming is remaining mild and manageable while our resilience continues to improve — both in wealthy and developing nations.

Activist judges and liberal misinterpretation of the Constitution have created many a headache for the American people. To ensure our government respects the rule of law and the Constitution, the Supreme Court should rule in favor of West Virginia.