Democrats in Congress, not courts or GOP, must address climate — a good bill is waiting 

The Supreme Court decision...to restrict federal regulatory authority over carbon dioxide emissions from power plants should provide Democrats in Congress the last impetus they need to finally act on comprehensive climate change legislation. And they no longer have excuses for inaction, since Democrats have now, after decades of missteps, managed to create a climate plan that is both politically popular and effective policy.

For most of the last 30 years, Democrats in Congress have bungled the issue. Valuable clean energy policies have passed as half measures, but Congress has always balked at major policies needed to limit emissions and create powerful incentives for large private sector investments in a clean energy economy. Twice, in 1993 and 2010, House Democrats pursued carbon pricing, the favored policy of economists everywhere and nightmare for Democratic political operatives anywhere. But, each time, the Senate was unable to gain the needed votes for what amounted to politically unpopular energy tax hikes, and Democrats lost their large House majorities in mid-term elections following both attempts.

After the “cap and trade” carbon pricing bill and the 2010 election debacle in which Democrats lost a net of 63 House members, six Senate seats, six Governors and 720 state legislative seats, the Obama administration and its environmental allies decided to instead create complicated regulations requiring each state to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

But the regulations were expansive, viewed by many legal experts as stretching regulatory authority to the breaking point, and in 2015 they suffered an unprecedented stay by the Supreme Court without ever going into effect. Indeed, it was that regulatory overreach that prompted a even greater counter-overreach by the right-wing majority of the Supreme Court this week.  The court chose not just to restrict the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority over power plant emissions, but insisted that there must be an ultra-explicit, “clear congressional authorization” for almost any nuance of rule-making, a nearly impossible standard given fast-changing realities of the complex energy marketplace, not to mention climate change dynamics.

ICYMI: The issue that trumps them all 

As the July 4 holiday approaches, Americans can be forgiven for taking a break from today’s incendiary politics of partisan hatred and performative outrage. But it’s also the right occasion for citizens to think about their duty to reinforce the rules that make our democracy work.

Polls show rampant inflation is the voters’ top concern in this midterm election year. But it won’t be the most important issue on the ballot.

More consequential than soaring prices, crime, climate change or any other pressing national problem is the resilience of our constitutional framework for self-government. If it cracks under pressure from political extremists, we can kiss our liberties and democracy goodbye.

Illiberal ideas and crackbrain conspiracy theories flourish across the political spectrum. But only one political party is colluding with a rogue ex-president’s plot to tear down our constitutional system. The Republican Party’s surrender to MAGA delusions and fanaticism is the biggest threat to our republic, trumping all other election issues.

Last week’s Supreme Court rulings on abortion and guns also underscored the GOP’s win-at-all-costs determination to use the federal government’s least democratic branch to impose rightwing dogma on the country.

Thanks to the meticulous work of the House Jan. 6 Select Committee, we know that top Trump administration and campaign officials told their boss he had lost the 2020 election. He schemed to nullify the people’s verdict anyway, cynically asking one of them, “What do I have to lose?”