Climate Regs

GAO had occasion to read the USEPA’s brief filed in the D.C. Circuit in Commonwealth of Kentucky v. EPA, a matter in which over half the states have sued the Agency challenging its decision to suddenly and dramatically tighten a primary National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for soot. This rule was pre-announced in March 2022 as one of the…

The case against this abuse has been building for some time. Following up on the details summarized in this Wall Street Journal editorial in the Spring of 2021, this op-ed last summer, and this post announcing GAO’s amicus brief in Kentucky et al. v. EPA et al., late last week the Journal ran an editorial by attorney for GAO Chris Horner…

Today, April 25, 2024, the Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its unconstitutional “suite of rules” being imposed to force premature retirement of politically disfavored sources of electricity generation. Also, GAO just obtained a copy of this letter to the EPA. It turns out the pressure groups really, really wanted the Agency to make sure to “finalize and implement the strongest…

“Whole of government,” backdoor “climate” agenda placed before D.C. Circuit “To believe the Administrator’s own words, or not to believe—that is the question.” April 5, 2024: This morning, Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO) filed an Amicus Brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al., v. EPA. The brief sets forth how…

Readers may recall this failure to disclose by EPA air office nominee Joseph Goffman, architect of the overturned Obama-Biden Clean Power Plan who is back at it now in the Biden administration — despite the record suggesting his own actions and disregard for the law are such that he should be nowhere near any such authority, or even in the…

We don’ need no stinking SCOTUS opinions? The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has announced a Wednesday confirmation hearing for former Obama Environmental Protection Agency climate guru Joe Goffman to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation at the EPA. Goffman has served in an acting capacity or otherwise in-waiting since joining the Biden transition team,…

Readers may recall the recent revelation courtesy of the indispensable Energy Policy Advocates showing the Securities and Exchange Commission staff coordinating with the White House on the SEC’s monumental (and potentially monumentally disastrous) “climate risk disclosure” rule advanced at the request of and following a massive campaign financed by a “green” investor. Now come a few more calendar entries that…

Like FERC, another ‘independent agency’ in fact taking White House direction This is what a “Whole of government approach” to imposing an ideological agenda looks like For those who haven’t followed the Institute for Energy Research’s revelations about the ‘independent commission’ Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), you should. See e.g., “Richard Glick’s White House Chats,” Wall Street Journal, June 12,…

Trade press and other news reports yesterday confirmed something GAO readers know, which is that the Biden Administration is transparently re-running the Obama Year 1 “climate” playbook, to obtain praise from foreign leaders and energize the annual climate “Conference of the Parties” — this time, COP26 (or #Flop26 on Twitter). President Biden has signaled unambiguously that, at both this weekend’s Rome G20 meeting…