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« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2016, 10:12:15 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 10-4-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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There are significant problems with the CPP. For starters, it’s another example of what is effectively the executive branch making law, a function plainly reserved for the legislative branch by the U.S. Constitution. However, Congress frequently abdicates this responsibility, and effectively and unconstitutionally transfers it to the executive branch. The CPP also breaches the Tenth Amendment protections of the states against improper encroachment by the federal government, and it was this aspect of the CPP that prompted the Supreme Court to call a timeout.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, challenging the CPP on Tenth Amendment grounds (State of West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency), said after the court session that the way EPA set its goals is key to the case. The Daily Signal notes25 that “the Clean Power Plan seeks to reverse what may be natural climate fluctuation at the cost of creating power blackouts, higher energy costs, job losses in the energy sector, and price spikes throughout the nation’s economy, including for necessities such as food and water.”
The Heritage Foundation predicts the following effects of the CPP26:
An average annual employment shortfall of nearly 300,000 jobs;
A peak employment shortfall of more than one million jobs;
A loss of more than $2.5 trillion (inflation-adjusted) in aggregate GDP; and
A total income loss of more than $7,000 (inflation-adjusted) per person.
And for what great and noble end would the EPA impose this misery on the nation?
Heritage cites climatologists Paul Knappenberger and Patrick Michaels, who used the “Model for the Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Induced Climate Change” developed with support from the EPA, and estimate that the climate regulations will reduce warming by a meager 0.018 degree Celsius by 2100.
Oral arguments began last Wednesday, and Scientific American magazine reports27 that both sides in the case thought the EPA arguments had the edge in the nearly seven-hour court session that involved 10 of the Circuit’s 11 judges, rather than just the normal three-judge panel. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland recused himself from the proceedings.
“The most contentious questions focused on a big issue: how the regulation set state-specific carbon levels for power plants,” the magazine noted. “Rather than looking at what individual coal plants could do to limit greenhouse gas emissions, EPA assumed the industry as a whole could accelerate a trend away from coal and toward cleaner natural gas and renewable power.”
The EPA’s arguments predictably did not sit well with the CPP’s challengers. Lawyers representing the 27 states and the private companies allied with them “argued that EPA overstepped its authority under the Clean Air Act, moving into Congress' turf and violating a separation of powers.”
Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a George W. Bush appointee, said that while curbing greenhouse gas emissions is a “laudable” goal, “global warming isn’t a blank check” for the administration. “I understand the frustration with Congress,” he said, but the rule is “fundamentally transforming an industry.” The executive branch does not have that authority.
The outcome is definitely uncertain, with judges expressing both support and opposition to the CPP. A decision from the DC Circuit might not come until early next year, and the Supreme Court’s final action might be delayed until 2018.
The administration’s manic, emotional and weak theory about carbon emissions threatening life as we know it brought forth a question from authors Stephen Moore and Kathleen Hartnett White in their excellent new book, “Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy” — “How can carbon be a weapon of mass destruction and the basis of all known life” at the same time?
MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST
Democrats Push to Repeal the Hyde Amendment28 — It’s saved two million lives over 40 years. No wonder the party of death hates it.
About That JASTA Veto Override…29 — Congress already regrets the new law.
California Criminalizes Whistleblowing30 — Governor signs controversial Planned Parenthood protection bill into law.
The Pollaganda Effect: Culture Edition31 — Is forcing religious Americans to violate their faith morally permissible?
Clinton Campaign Doubles Down on ‘Deplorable’ Americans32 — What Clinton is doing is not all that different than what Obama did in 2007.
OPINION IN BRIEF
Rich Lowry: “The so-called net operating loss carryforward that Trump took advantage of is not an exotic loophole in the tax code. Many industrialized countries have similar provisions. In 2014, more than a million taxpayers declared net operating losses. The provision simply reflects that if you, say, lose $100,000 setting up a business and earn $50,000 the next year, it makes no sense for the government to tax the $50,000 as if it were the only part of the equation; the loss should be accounted for, too. … The damage to Trump of the Times story is probably not his tax strategy. … Rather, the vulnerability for Trump is the fact — stated in black and white in his own filings — that he lost nearly a billion dollars by recklessly overextending himself in the 1990s. This will be thrown back at him every time he touts his business acumen. In other words, all the time. … If Trump had released his taxes or even some of them, he wouldn’t have been vulnerable to a leak that, coincidentally, hit the news as the campaign enters the homestretch. He has enough enemies that he could be certain that information about his taxes would get out, and there may be yet more to come. He teed up this October Surprise.”
SHORT CUTS
Insight: “Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.” —Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
Braying Jackass: “God grants life, God should take it away — that’s my religious belief.” —Tim Kaine, who is Catholic and pro-abortion
Braying Jackass: “The scientific consensus is in and the argument is now over. If you do not believe in climate change, you do not believe in facts, or in science or empirical truths and therefore, in my humble opinion, should not be allowed to hold public office.” —actor Leonardo DiCaprio
Friendly fire: “You’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people … out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It’s the craziest thing in the world.” —Bill Clinton knocking ObamaCare
Blame shifting: “[ObamaCare has] eminently fixable problems in terms of strengthening the marketplace, improving the subsidies so more folks can get it, making sure everybody has Medicaid who was qualified under the original legislation, doing more on the cost containment. But you hit a point where if Congress just is not willing to make any constructive modifications and it’s all political football, then you’re getting a suboptimal solution.” —Barack Obama
Late-night humor: “Hillary Clinton has vowed to crack down on hackers who launch cyberattacks. She said, ‘If anyone’s going to abuse U.S. government computers, it’s gonna be me.’” —Conan O'Brien
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson
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