The Supreme Court strikes down part of the EPA’s climate change agenda

 We all remember after the Congress failed to pass cap and trade legislation that Barack Obama quipped, “there is more than one way to skin a cat.” Of course well all knew what that meant: he intended to use the EPA to implement through regulation what he could not get through the Congress.

  We also remember when Barack Obama was running for President and he promised anyone who was listening that under his plan energy costs would “necessarily skyrocket.” Well today those skyrocketing prices came under attack when the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 margin that the EPA had to consider costs before implementing new climate change regulations. As part of this ruling the Supreme Court threw out new EPA regulations regarding mercury and other pollutants which has forced the closure of many coal-fired plants across the nation.

  Here is more:

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against Environmental Protection Agency pollution rules for power plants Monday, in a blow to President Obama’s environmental agenda.

The majority decision, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, said the EPA has to consider the costs of complying with the rules and sent the air pollution regulations back to the agency.

The EPA rules in question regulate hazardous air pollutants and mercury from coal- and oil-fired power plants, known as the MATS regulations. The regulations went into effect April 16. The utility industry had argued that the rules cost them billions of dollars to comply and that EPA ignored the cost issue in putting the regulations into effect.

“EPA must consider cost — including cost of compliance — before deciding whether regulation is appropriate and necessary. It will be up to the agency to decide (as always, within the limits of reasonable interpretation) how to account for cost,” Scalia wrote in agreeing with the industry.

  With the EPA in the process of writing even more regulations regarding climate change in an effort to push Barack Obama’s climate change agenda this ruling could have a major impact on the agency moving forward.

The decision will have repercussions for other EPA regulations that are key to Obama’s climate change agenda. The EPA will now have to examine the cost of compliance for the Clean Power Plan, which is at the heart of the president’s environmental agenda.

  The EPA had argued that the costs do not matter because these regulations were necessary, however due to this ruling the EPA will now have to figure in the cost the regulations will have on the industry. Of course if the agency takes it cue from the other agencies pushing the climate change agenda, namely NASA and NOAA, they will probably fudge the numbers until they get the numbers they want…

Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium