07 Jul 2006 Global Warming Policy: Who Decides?

Should the Supreme Court determine America’s global warming policy?

If you’re like me, you’ll say “no.” Lawmaking powers belong to Congress and, on the state level, state legislatures.

Some state attorneys general and environmentalists disagree, however, as Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute warns in this op-ed in The American Spectator:

The Supreme Court, by agreeing to hear a case on whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must take steps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, will finally judge on the alleged threat of global warming. The stakes are huge. Should the Court find in favor of the plaintiffs, it would put the EPA in control of the U.S. economy for the foreseeable future…

Global warming “skeptics” and “alarmists” famously disagree on 1) if human-caused global warming is happening, AND/OR, 2) if it is happening, if it is significant, AND/OR 3) if it is happening, what the impacts would be, AND/OR, 4) if it is happening, would proposals to stop it actually work, AND/OR 5) if it is happening, would the proposals to stop it, if they worked, be more harmful than any warming.

That said, one thing global warming “skeptics” and “alarmists” should agree on is the basic democratic principle that basic government decisions about public policy and lawmaking should be done by legislatures, accountable to the people of the United States.