Biden Blindsided With Massive Lawsuit By 12 States Over Executive Order They Claim Violates Separation Of Powers

OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.

12 states are suing the Biden administration over a climate executive order that could have a serious economic impact across the country, according to Fox Business.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is leading the lawsuit that was filed on Monday.

Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah joined the state of Missouri in the action.

Biden’s Executive Order, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis,” oes not have the authority to issue binding numbers for the “social cost” of greenhouse gases to be used in federal regulations, alleges the lawsuit.

Biden’s order created an interagency working group that cited interim values for the following categories, $269 billion for carbon dioxide, $990 billion for methane, and $8.24 trillion for nitrous oxide – totaling approximately $9.5 trillion, according to the lawsuit.

Schmitt said that regulations will suppress manufacturing and harm agriculture in Missouri.

Hundreds of thousands of people work in those industries.

“Under President Biden’s executive order, which he didn’t have the authority to enact, these hard-working Missourians who have lived and worked this land for generations, could be left in the dust,” Schmitt said.

The impact from the $9.5 trillion “social cost” of greenhouse gases will stretch farther than just Missouri.

“In practice, this enormous figure will be used to justify an equally enormous expansion of federal regulatory power that will intrude into every aspect of Americans’ lives— from their cars, to their refrigerators and homes, to their grocery and electric bills,” the suit states.

The lawsuit points out that Biden’s executive order doesn’t have the authority to set values for the social costs of carbon, methane, and nitrous oxide that will be used by regulatory agencies.

“It will be used to inflict untold billions or trillions of dollars of damage to the U.S. economy for decades to come,” the suit states.

From Fox News:

In claiming that Biden’s order cannot set these values, the suit claims that the action violates the separation of powers, “the most fundamental bulwark of liberty.”