A Harvard law professor, and mentor to President Obama, testified that “the Environmental Protection Agency lacks the statutory and constitutional authority to force states to implement plans to cut carbon emissions at existing power plants.” The Hill,
“In my considered view, EPA is off on a constitutionally reckless mission,” Laurence Tribe, a professor at Harvard Law School, said in prepared remarks at a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing on Tuesday.
Tribe was hired to write comments on the rule by Peabody Energy Corp., the largest coal-mining company in the world.
The rule, EPA proposed in June, seeks to cut the power sector’s carbon emissions 30 percent by 2030. Under the rule, states would have one year to create and adopt implementation plans.
“This submissive role for the states confounds the political accountability that the Tenth Amendment is meant to protect,” Tribe said in his remarks. “EPA’s plan will force states to adopt policies that will raise energy costs and prove deeply unpopular, while cloaking those policies in the Emperor’s garb of state “choice” – even though in fact the polices are compelled by EPA.”
While Subcommittee Chair Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) agreed with Tribe, calling EPA’s plan “a violation of existing law,” not everyone on the committee views the rule as federal overreach.
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