The Supreme Court handed a victory to Americans concerned with unelected bureaucrats driving up energy costs by overturning a costly regulation that lacks any meaningful environmental benefit. Congress and the states now must step up to reject overzealous regulators — not rely on the courts.
The high court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency failed to consider the costs of its Mercury and Air Toxics Standard that regulates emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants. And those costs are substantial.
Per the EPA's own calculation, compliance costs are $9.6 billion annually. Industry projections are much higher and likely more accurate, as the EPA grossly underestimated the number of power plants adversely affected. Also per the EPA's calculation, the direct benefits of reducing hazardous air pollutants are miniscule — at most $6 million each year.
Affected industries will pass the costs on to families and businesses directly but also indirectly, through almost everything they buy. The result is fewer jobs and a weaker economy — all for naught.
Is the Supreme Court ruling too little, too late? After all, dozens of coal-fired power plants have closed (laying people off in the process) and others have installed costly technology because the EPA finalized the regulation in 2012.
Even so, the decision is important. Typically, courts defer to regulatory agencies, but this time, they provided an important check on unelected bureaucrats' power. Furthermore, the decision could save the tens of thousands of megawatts of affordable, reliable energy sources that asked the EPA for an extension to comply with the regulation.
If there's a lesson to be learned for the states and Congress, it's that it's time to step up. Our elected officials and state governments should not wait on court decisions.
By the end of the summer, the Obama administration will likely finalize climate-change regulations on new and existing power plants that will have devastating economic effects — all for a change in the Earth's temperature almost too small to measure. When the EPA finalizes its Clean Power Plan, it will charge the states to develop their own costly implementation plans. Why should the states go down a path similar to the mercury rule, only to have a court decision tell the EPA to back off?
Congress should prohibit any agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions and the states need to step forward and reject these regulations entirely, not succumb to the executive branch's coercion. And both need to reassert their power before it's too late.
Nick Loris is the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in the Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity at The Heritage Foundation (heritage.org).
