Kentucky's new top cop, Attorney General Russell Coleman, is already standing up for Bluegrass State residents and uniting other Republican AGs against the heavy (and misguided) hand of the Biden administration's regulation-loving bureaucrats.
President Joe Biden's crusade to force a "green" (read: anything but green) energy "transition" as part of his pledge to "end" fossil fuels has relied on federal fiat rather than legislation passed by the will of Americans, a strategy that has repeatedly failed due to some rules' blatantly unconstitutional nature.
Undeterred by pesky guardrails such as the U.S. Constitution, the Biden administration has plunged ahead with more "rules" levied by unaccountable bureaucrats in the vast federal administrative state. Among them is a rule from the Federal Highway Administration requiring state and local transportation and planning entities to create greenhouse gas reduction targets and report "tailpipe carbon" emissions data to the Biden administration, with a requirement for states to establish and report their targets by February 1.
"Not so fast," say Kentucky AG Coleman and the coalition he's leading of 20 other state attorneys general now pursuing a legal challenge to block Biden's latest climate rule. In their motion for a preliminary injunction filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, Coleman and the AGs of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming argue that Biden is again out of constitutional bounds.
"President Biden's radical climate crackdown is a direct assault on every Kentuckian's wallet and the latest attempt to drive every gas-powered car off the road," AG Coleman emphasized in a statement. "Our office is leading the fight to stop this Administration from raising costs for families, farmers and small business owners when they can least afford it," he added of the rule that would force states to slash carbon emissions or face punishment from federal authorities.
According to the motion filed by the AGs, Biden's latest climate rule is "another unlawful effort by the Biden Administration to use its limited regulatory authority as a means of circumventing Congress and achieving its policy goals" because the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) doesn't have the authority necessary to propagate such a rule that also violates state sovereignty and the principles of federalism.
The argument made by the AGs — which cites Biden's previously defeated attempts to use executive fiats to eliminate coal-fired power plants, mandate COVID vaccines, control private property, forgive student loans, and regulate home appliances — is straightforward:
Policy-making authority in the federal government belongs only to Congress. The Executive branch may not flout the allocation of power between the federal government and the States set out in the Constitution without subjecting the States to irreparable harm to their sovereignty. Nor can the Agencies compel the States to administer a federal regulatory program in service to Executive branch policy wishes absent some statutory authority to do so—which is lacking as to this rule. Furthermore, the Emissions Rule is arbitrary and capricious. To prevent the harm the Emissions Rule will inflict on the States, this Court should preliminarily enjoin it.
If it's allowed to stand, the FHWA rule would require Kentucky and other states across the country to burn taxpayer dollars — estimated at more than $600,000 per state — and dedicate hundreds of hours of manpower to comply with the latest Biden edict, say the attorneys general.