Democrats have latched onto the “climate change” narrative, insidiously using it to push their woke agenda, defending various bans, crackdowns on conservative-leaning industries like oil production, and even attacks on Bitcoin as necessary to “protect the environment.”
President Biden is no different. In fact, he quickly proved himself just another one of the climate apparatchiks as soon as he entered office, with one of his first acts as president being a radical climate change-focused action.
In fact, on Biden’s very first day in office, he signed a climate change-focused executive order that radically increased the cost per ton of carbon dioxide emissions.
As Fox News reports, under Trump, the cost estimate for carbon dioxide was relatively low because it was US-centric, but when Biden signed his executive order he went along with the globalist consensus and raised it dramatically. In that outlet’s words:
President Joe Biden on his first day in office restored the climate cost estimate to about $51 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions after the Trump administration had reduced the figure to about $7 or less per ton. Former President Donald Trump’s estimate included only damages felt in the U.S. versus the global damages captured in higher estimates that were previously used under the Obama administration.
Well, a federal district judge in Louisiana just barred Biden from using that higher cost estimate, at least for now.
That judge, U.S. District Judge James Cain, sided with the Republican AGs that had filed suit over the cost increase and said in his decision that Biden’s decision to raise the figure from $7 to $51, an increase that resulted from his decision to factor in “social costs” related to petroleum production, was impermissible.
Why? Because the new cost estimate would likely increase energy costs, potentially substantially, while also decreasing state revenues from petroleum production. In raising the estimate he was raising prices and substantially harming state revenues, something the judge decided he didn’t have the power to do, at least in that way.
As a result, Judge Cain issued an injunction that bars Biden from using the new, much higher cost estimate for carbon dioxide emmissions. Writing on that in the ruling, Judge Cain, again according to Fox, said:
“Plaintiff States have sufficiently identified the kinds of harms to support injunctive relief. Moreover, the Court finds that the Plaintiff States have made a clear showing of an injury-in-fact, and that such injury ‘cannot be undone through monetary remedies.’”
“The Court agrees that the public interest and balance of equities weigh heavily in favor of granting a preliminary injunction.”
This lawfare action took time, as it stems from an action Biden took on his first day in office. But it also shows that lawfare can be effective; by challenging the policies in the courts, the state AGs defended their states in a way where only the legality of the action mattered, not the popularity of it.
For issues like climate change, such backdoor defense methods are important and far more effective than trying to wage an impossible war of public opinion.
By: Gen Z Conservative, editor of GenZConservative.com. Follow me on Parler and Gettr.
This story syndicated with permission from Will – Trending Politics