Newsletter

 Before we discuss the recent Supreme Court EPA decision let’s review some basic information. Isn’t it rather amazing that some people in our government and the country have managed to make oil an evil entity?  That indicates that many people have no knowledge about what oil is.  How about some facts?

• Some of the oil in the world is more than 50 Million years old and can come from an oil reservoir that is almost 20,000 feet underground. 
• This oil will travel many miles on its way to become the products that crude oil is refined into. 

How about some facts for our energy challenged folks? 

• One 42 gallon barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline.  The rest of the barrel goes into things like: 
• Plastic.  All plastic is made from petroleum.   
• Asphalt: Used in road construction.
• Detergents, furniture, paints, ballpoint pens, tires, cassettes, CD Player, Shoes, Insect Repellent, Oil Filters, Lipstick, Denture Adhesive, Linoleum, Hand Lotion, Telephones, Artificial limbs, Golf Balls, Nail Polish, False Teeth, Hearing Aids, Roofing Shingles.
• All in all over 6,000 products come from petroleum.
• The top crude oil producing states are Texas, Alaska, California, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Wind farms are the top of the energy chain for many people. The average wind farm contains roughly 150 turbines.  Each wind turbine needs 80 gallons of oil as lubricant.  That lubricant is a synthetic oil based on approximately 12,000 gallons of crude oil   The oil for each turbine needs to be replaced once a year.  By the way, most people do not know that wind turbines kill an incredible number of raptors and other birds. 

Here are some interesting facts about electric cars.  Power plants burn coal to generate the electricity needed for electric cars and those plants emit a higher fossil fuel footprint that many people believe.  The batteries in electric cars require rare earth minerals such as lithium.  Chinese companies have secured most of these minerals.  The mining of these minerals is also treacherous.

The facts of climate change, energy and fossil fuels are not known by all Americans.  In fact, some of the information being espoused is totally inaccurate.  The “facts” do serve the purpose of some people.

People who are committed to green energy and the abolition of fossil fuels are upset about the Supreme Court’s decision about the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).  The reaction to this ruling indicated that many people do not understand the legislative process at the federal level.

The EPA received authority to regulate climate emissions during the Obama administration. The Obama administration was frustrated that Congress would not enact a law empowering the administration to regulate climate emissions.  So it manuvered to get the authority from the 1970 Clean Air Act.  After Democrats lost the House in 2010 President Obama turned to the EPA which in 2015 promulgated the Clean Power Plan (CPP).  The goal of the CPP  was to pressure states into shutting down coal and (eventually) natural-gas plants and switch to renewable electricity sources.  The EPA resorted to an obscure provision of the original Clean Air Act that empowered the EPA to designate a “best system of emissions reduction” (BSER).  BSER for existing facilities had been used only a handful of times, mostly for solid waste incinerators.  The EPA decided that BSER’s could extend to the whole economy.  The CPP would have imposed costly technological requirements but also imposed standards that would force states to switch to natural gas and eventually renewables.  EPA also planned to adopt nationwide standards on how and when a person is allowed to use electricity in their own house.

The Trump administration developed another rule in place of CPP which the D.C. Circuit subsequently vacated.  President Biden wanted to reinstate the CPP while he contemplated a new rule.  States led by West Virginia appealed to the Supreme Court.  The Court decided that the EPA lacked the statutory authority for the CPP.

This has been one of the most important parts of the recent Supreme Court decision.  Congress, the branch of government that is to write laws was told: Resume the people’s work. Write the laws.  Executive agencies should not be writing law. 

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska described the situation very well.  “Politicians on the left are happy to let bureaucrats run everything and to not have to own it and politicians on the right are happy to blame someone else and not do the work.” 

Conservative Republican legislators note that their Democrat counterparts routinely write legislation that is deliberately vague.  Therefore, the administrative state has maximum flexibility to develop programs that Congress does not want to be responsible for passing.  Of course, the federal bureaucracy which leans left can continue its work even if the President is a Republican and the Congress is run by Republicans.  Note:  this is part of the D.C. swamp.

Statutory law is enduring but it takes time for all factions  to study, deliberate and compromise.  A bureaucracy works so much faster, is far more predictable and can be more easily manipulated.

The Supreme Court just said No.  Executive agencies do not write law.  Congress does. Congress.  Do your job.

The negative reaction to the Supreme Court decision from the left side of the political spectrum is  because people in the political world understand that removing power from agencies changes the assured outcome.  If Congress actually writes laws the result is not certain and some factions may not achieve their goals.