The Pupil May Not Be Ready, But the Teacher Has Appeared

As our imperial president continues to trash the
Constitution in his quest to push the "change"
part of his "Hope and Change" scheme on us,
there are some constitutional truths that he
could --- and should --- take time to learn
and heed; indeed, these would only benefit him,
not to mention the rest of us.

Here is one:

UTILITARY AIR REGULATORY GROUP V. EPA
-Ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that was decided 7-2
with the majority stating "When an agency claims to
discover in a long-extant statute an unheralded power
to regulate a significant portion of the American economy,
we typically greet its announcement with a measure of
skepticism."

This ruling is an overdue correction to MASSACHUSETTS V.
EPA, a 5-4 decision in 2007 which held greenhouse gases can
be "pollutants" under the clean air laws written decades before
the "carbon footprint" panic of today. It wrongly rewrote the
Clean Air Act from the 1970s. In order to obey the law as written,
the EPA estimated, permit applications under one program would
have zoomed to 6.1 million annually from the present level of
15,000. Congress intended for traditional byproducts like SOx
or ozone to be so regulated; the ceiling limits made no sense
where carbon is concerned. Any CO2 rule would thus reach
far beyond factories and power plants to millions of carbon
sources such as hospitals, grocery stores, farms, schools, and
churches, mandating penalties of $37.5 K per day.

The UAR Group v. EPA ruling from the Supreme Court backs
off the EPA from the temptation of claiming unprecedented
authority to order the states to create "cap-and-tax" programs
or otherwise ration energy usage. A less headstrong and power-
hungry administration would be more likely to heed the Supreme's
ruling, so don't hold your breath waiting for Obama and company
to become contrite on this.

The ruling states "An agency has no power to 'tailor' legislation to
bureaucratic policy goals by rewriting unambiguous statutory
terms. Would that King Barry and his regime, and agencies
comport themselves to these constitutional restrictions.
Our country would not be in quite such dire straits.


MEM