WV A.G. Morrisey: Lesson of SCOTUS EPA Case Is ‘Work Within the Constitutional Systems’ Instead of Making Promises You Can’t Deliver 

On Thursday’s “PBS NewsHour,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) stated that the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of West Virginia’s challenge to EPA regulations wasn’t about climate, it was about major decisions being made by Congress, not bureaucrats who don’t have the legal power to do so and told elected officials, “don’t promise your constituents things you can’t deliver, work within the constitutional systems in order to deliver things that are good for the people.”

Morrisey said, “What I would say to Americans watching tonight is that this decision is not about climate change. It’s really about a very simple proposition, who gets to make the major decisions of the day? Should it be unelected bureaucrats seizing power that has not been delegated to them, or should it be Congress? We’ve always argued that it’s Congress, because, that way, whether you’re in New York or West Virginia or Texas or Nebraska or any of the states across the nation, you’re going to have a seat at the table and you’re going to have the people’s representatives making a choice. And that’s what this case is all about.”

He later added, “This is a big win for the people of America, because now their elected representatives will have a clear voice.”

Morrisey further stated, “Once again, this is not a case about climate change or hamstringing a federal agency. It’s about ensuring that, when a federal agency acts, it’s comporting to the limits that Congress prescribes for them. So the EPA still has certain tools to move forward. But what they don’t have the ability to do is, on these major questions of the day, where there’s vast economic or political significance, they can’t proceed on the basis of maybe some ambiguous language and then try to rewrite the nation’s power grid. They can’t do that. That’s what they tried to do under the Clean Power Plan. And, obviously, they’ve talked about doing things that are not feasible today, in terms of trying to have 100 million people on the power grid for electric cars, and not only finishing to wipe out coal [but] get rid of half of natural gas. Some of what they’re trying to accomplish, they clearly don’t have the legal authority to do. So, what I would ask people to do, don’t promise your constituents things you can’t deliver, work within the constitutional systems in order to deliver things that are good for the people.”

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