Obama's unconstitutional EPA mandates

President Obama spent a lot of time talking this past year about his "climate change agenda." Turns out, he couldn't get it through Congress, even before the Republicans' epic gains last November.

But as with immigration, health care, and too much else, the inability to get democratic approval hasn't stopped the president. Now he and the EPA have announced a comprehensive climate change plan, not in the form of democratically adopted law, but in the guise of executive regulations.

It's called the Clean Power Plan, or CPP. The aim is to force states to restructure their energy systems dramatically. The plan is only a few months old, but already the state of Missouri has agreed to participate.

That was a mistake. For one thing, the plan is poor policy. Worse, it's probably illegal. Missouri shouldn't be signing up, it should be filing suit to stop this federal overreach in court.

Here's how the plan works: It sets an emissions target for each state, and then commands the state to draft a proposal for meeting the federally determined goal. CPP directs states to focus on four areas, including improving power plant efficiencies and adopting measures to reduce demand. The ultimate goal is a 30 percent reduction in energy-related emissions nationwide.

There is a reason President Obama couldn't get the CPP through Congress. The plan demands cuts in energy-related carbon emissions so drastic, it could cost tens of thousands of jobs and send energy prices soaring. A recent study by National Economic Research Associates estimates that the cost for CPP would top $479 billion nationally over 15 years. The same study predicts double-digit increases in energy prices in 43 states, including Missouri. The pain of these higher energy costs would fall disproportionately on low-income families and those with fixed incomes.

But CPP is not just bad policy. It's also probably illegal. Of the four areas the EPA has directed states to address to meet the federally imposed emissions targets, federal law gives EPA jurisdiction over just one. Translation: The EPA has no legal authority to compel states to implement the president's climate change agenda.

No one has made this point more forcefully than Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe -- a Democrat and self-identified liberal. In legal filings, Tribe has called the plan "unconstitutional" and a clear violation of the EPA's legal authority. Tribe is right. The CPP attempts to commandeer state resources and state authority for a federal plan Congress has not approved. In Tribe's words, Obama's effort "defeats political accountability and violates principles of federalism that are basic to our constitutional order."

For this White House, that's nothing new. The president has shown the same cavalier disregard for federalism and the separation of powers on immigration policy and with his repeated attempts to change the way his health care plan operates.

The real question is, why is Missouri signing up for the president's latest installment of federal overreach? To date, only four states have agreed to implement the new climate change regulations. For reasons Governor Nixon has yet to explain, Missouri is one of them. To call that a mistake is an understatement. CPP will drive up energy prices in Missouri and burden Missouri families. Our state's economic recovery is already among the weakest in the nation; CPP would make it weaker still.

Unfortunately, Missouri's involvement in this illegal scheme is par for the course. Over the past six years, while others states have stood up for the Constitution and the rule of law, Missouri has stood by. Missouri has taken no part in the states' legal challenges to Obamacare. It has played no role in the lawsuit filed by 26 states to stop the president's immigration power grab. And now it is volunteering to comply with an illegal climate change agenda, even as twelve other states go to court to stop it.

Enough is enough. It's time for Missouri to stop siding with the Obama Administration and start siding with the rule of law. Federal overreach is holding back our workers, harming our families, and threatening our constitutional liberties. The climate change plan is just the latest example. Missouri should stop aiding and abetting the president's assault on the Constitution and start leading the fight to defend it.

Joshua Hawley is a constitutional lawyer and the founder of Missouri Liberty Project (libertyprojectmo.com). He was co-counsel to Hobby Lobby in its successful suit at the U.S. Supreme Court last year.