Monday, July 11, 2022

So much for the Supreme Court EPA decision...

 

It looks like the EPA - and other Federal bureaucracies - are intent on defying the Supreme Court's recent ruling restricting their authority.


... contemporaneous with the Supreme Court’s decision, several agencies promptly doubled down on efforts to strangle the oil and gas industries with regulatory restrictions, essentially daring the courts or anyone else to stop them.  Thousands of pages of statutes give them thousands of arguments to claim they have the “clear congressional authorization,” any one of which arguments might stick.  They are now out to show who’s boss.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan wasted no time in getting a statement out on the afternoon of June 30.   Excerpt:

[W]e are committed to using the full scope of EPA’s authorities to protect communities and reduce the pollution that is driving climate change. . . .  EPA will move forward with lawfully setting and implementing environmental standards that meet our obligation to protect all people and all communities from environmental harm. 

In other words, we will just have to find other ways to implement the restrictions that we want to implement.  The very next day, July 1, David Blackmon at Forbes reported that “EPA Targets Permian Basin, Widening Biden’s War On Oil And Gas.”   The Permian Basin is currently the most productive oil and gas region in the United States, providing about 40% of the oil production and 15% of the gas of the entire country.  The Permian Basin is also the site of about 40% of the nation’s active drilling rigs.  And so it seems that EPA is gearing up to declare the Permian Basin a so-called “non-attainment area” with respect to ozone.  Blackmon:

[T]he Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced [this week that] it may soon issue a ruling declaring that vast parts of the Permian Basin are in “non-attainment” status under the agency’s ozone regulations.  If such a declaration is made, it will constitute a direct governmental assault on what is by far America’s most active and productive oil-producing region and its second most-productive natural gas area.   

What would be the effect of such a declaration on current and future U.S. domestic oil and gas production?  Blackmon again:

Placing the Permian Basin in non-attainment status would force a significant reduction in the region’s rig count, severely limiting the domestic industry’s efforts to increase U.S. oil production at a time when the global oil market is already severely under-supplied.

. . .

Meanwhile, over at the Interior Department, July 1 was also the day for issuance of a statutorily-mandated five-year off-shore oil and gas leasing plan.  Nicholas Groom at Reuters has a summary here.  The bottom line is, we’re going to completely shut down leasing off both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, but maybe we’ll allow a little in the Gulf of Mexico or the Cook Inlet (Alaska).


There's more at the link.

That's typical of bureaucrats, of course.  Don't like a Supreme Court ruling?  Defy it.  Circumvent it with every paper-shuffling, buck-passing trick at your disposal.  Deny, delay, obfuscate.  Ignore complaints.  It's not just Democrat administrations that do it, either.  The entrenched bureaucracy that implements (?) the decisions of every administration (the so-called "Deep State") plus the political appointees of every President have always sought ways to do what they want to do, rather than what they should do or what the law says they must do.  Lincoln's abrogation of the right of habeas corpus comes to mind, to cite just one example.

I don't know what can be done about this.  The courts, up to and including the Supreme Court, can issue rulings and injunctions for all they're worth;  but if the powers that be are determined to ignore or circumvent them, there's no immediate remedy for that.  The rule of law is already honored more in the breach than in the observance in many ways in these formerly United States.  Nowadays, it all too often depends on one's politics to determine whether or not the law will operate in one's favor.

Just don't expect the Biden administration to be bound by the rule of law, or the decision of courts of law, from the lowest to the highest.  It's partisan in the extreme, and ruthless in its determination to do whatever it wants to achieve its objectives.  It won't be stopped by laws or lawsuits.  It'll need stronger measures than mere words.

Peter


16 comments:

John Fisher said...

Add to that the Transportation Department. West VA vs EPA never happened. https://www.autonews.com/regulation-safety/us-proposes-states-set-their-own-tailpipe-emissions-targets and https://www.wsj.com/articles/pete-buttigieg-runs-off-the-road-supreme-court-transportation-highways-emissions-climate-environment-11657310842?st=34nu5ricltbxsl7&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

The Wraith said...

Well, if the EPA doesn't have to follow the law, neither do the energy companies. In other words, "Do it anyway."

SiGraybeard said...

Add in the Bruen gun ruling and all that’s happened is the start of nine zillion lawsuits and counter suits. Lawyers make money and every advocacy group has to beg for more contributions.

One of the co-equal branches of government does what it’s supposed to and the others say, “make me.”

MNW said...

At this point the solution is to purge the agency down to the janitors

Arthur said...

What giving fines to agencies (and their employees!) who are found to have broken the law? Every citizen has the right to challenge, and receive the fines. Important that the agency people found to have violated the law are personally fined.

scamorama said...

The EPA appears to be paraphrasing Lenin, ""How many divisions does the Supreme Court have?"

Dean M Drews said...

Right on. Lawless begets lawless. Make the agencies sue.

Scrivener said...

"At this point the solution is to purge the agency down to the janitors "

Why leave the janitors? What are they needed for?

Jack Loizeaux is dead but his kids are still running the company (and lots of competitors have sprung up in the intervening years). Hire one to turn government buildings into basketball-sized rubble, haul it to the ocean to build reefs for fish, plant grass and a few trees where each building used to be, and move on.

MNW said...

The Supreme Court it self has isolated government employees from accountability

Mind your own business said...

The EPA and other agencies had best quit buying ammunition and start buying body armor. If they think they can ignore SCOTUS decisions, there is no reason for citizens to respect their bodily integrity, let alone pay heed to anything they have to say.

That's the problem when your government starts to ignore the checks and balances built into it. The citizens have no reason to honor the social contract with the government. Everything unravels. And that is not a good move for government employees ... they are beaucoup out-numbered.

Blufield said...

So if Michael Regan's body was found at the bottom of a well, technically that is not a crime, since he is in violation of the constitution. Right???

BGnad said...

Looks like forceful retirements may be forthcoming.

XTphreak said...

@Blufield

He'd be in violation of polluting groundwater.

Now getting enforcement ..... well



good luck!

Antibubba said...

Squeeze the neck of any animal and it will fight you to breathe.

This is not a surprise.

Kristophr said...

If you have the balls, drill anyway.

Then cite the SCOTUS decision when they try to fine you or shut you down.

Don said...

All departments who think they write laws for us to follow need purged and those guilty of doing so need to be sent where they belong for a long time......prison.