An editorial from The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register
WHEELING, W.Va. — Federal law uses statutes against conspiracy to stop plots to steal money from Americans before they can be implemented. But President Barack Obama is insisting a government conspiracy that will cost consumers billions be allowed to proceed until it is too late to stop it.
Obama’s Clean Power Plan is being challenged in the courts. While arguments and counter-arguments are heard, the Environmental Protection Agency proceeds to enforce new rules aimed at shutting down as many coal-fired power plants as possible.
As we have pointed out, electric utilities have accepted the Obama administration’s anti-fossil fuels initiative as a done deal. Many coal-fired generating units already have been shut down. More will be idled during the next six months – forcing consumers to buy high-priced electricity generated in other ways.
Once those coal-fired plants are shut down, there is very little likelihood they will be reopened. The power companies will have moved on.
All this had been pointed out to federal appeals court judges by officials in several states, including West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. But earlier this month, a federal court ruled the EPA can proceed with its scheme until a lawsuit against it is decided.
That will not occur until this summer at the earliest. Again, irreparable damage will have been caused by the EPA during that delay.
Morrisey and Texas officials are leading a coalition of 25 states asking the Supreme Court to order the EPA to delay enforcement until the main lawsuit is settled. That request was filed Tuesday.
Unless the high court grants it, “West Virginia and other states will suffer irreparable harm as job creators and state agencies spend untold resources to comply with a rule that is likely to be struck down,” Morrisey commented.
Precisely.
Would Supreme Court justices, able to throw the brakes on a speeding locomotive before it crashed, do so – or decide no harm had been done yet, so they should not intervene?
Common sense dictates the high court should throw the brakes on the speeding locomotive that is the EPA.
To read more from The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register, subscribe here.