“Burning the Constitution of the United States … cannot be a part of our national energy policy,” said Harvard constitutional law professor Lawrence H. Tribe before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. According to the Washington Times, Mr. Tribe told the Committee on Tuesday that “the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to limit greenhouse-gas emissions far exceeds its authority under federal law and strikes a blow to the 10th amendment by essentially making states subservient to Washington on energy and environmental matters.”
Meanwhile, as I wrote yesterday, John Allison, president and CEO of the Cato Institute, gave members of Congress a lesson on the First Amendment. Barbara Boxer, Ed Markley and Sheldon Whitehouse sent 107 letters to think tanks and trade associations in an attempt to intimidate. Mr. Allison is not surprised that these three Democratic Senators do not agree with Cato’s findings on climate change, but as John wrote, “… that does not give you the right to use the awesome power of the federal government to cow us or anyone else.”
According to Mr. Tribe, “EPA’s proposal raises grave constitutional questions.” Through the EPA, the Obama administration is moving forward with sweeping, unprecedented restrictions on U.S. power plants.
