Laurence E. Tribe, Harvard law professor
Plan would unfairly target coal industry, should be withdrawn
A NOTED HARVARD law professor has issued a powerful rebuke to the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, describing the rule as unconstitutional, “lawless” and a “power grab.” Professor Laurence E. Tribe’s comments appeared in an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal December 22. The piece followed a 36-page submission to the EPA on December 1 in which Tribe, joined by Peabody Energy Corporation, presented legal arguments against the EPA plan.
The Clean Power Plan, or CPP, is a sweeping regulation targeting carbon dioxide emissions at the state level. It is widely seen as an effort to shut down coal-fired power plants. The EPA issued the proposed rule in June 2014. A final rule is expected in June 2015.
Tribe, who taught President Obama at Harvard and supported his presidential campaign, asserted his credibility in criticizing the CPP by noting his support for various environmental causes. He said his comments “reflect my professional conclusions as an independent legal scholar.”
Tribe argues that the EPA does not have the legislative authority “to re-engineer the nation’s electric generating system and power grid” and accuses the agency of “brazenly [rewriting] the history of an obscure section of the 1970 Clean Air Act.”
In his more expansive comments, submitted to the EPA, Tribe contends that the CPP reverses decades of pubic policy in which the federal government actively supported the use of coal. This reversal would unfairly harm the coal industry and those who rely upon it, he says.
“It forces a select set of victims – including coal-reliant consumers, communities, regions, businesses and utilities – to bear a substantial share of the economic burden for a worldwide public policy objective” in exchange for “an imperceptible effect on worldwide greenhouse gas levels.” He adds that this “radical shift in federal policy” comes “with no attempt by EPA to quantify the climate or environmental benefits from the Proposed Rule.”
Tribe further asserts that a presidential speech (by Obama, in which he announced his Climate Action Plan) does not grant the EPA the authority to create the CPP.
He concludes that the CPP “lacks any legal basis and should be withdrawn.”
