The newly proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules endorsed by President Obama to cut greenhouse gas emissions may be setting the stage for another Obamacare-like showdown with the states.
POLITICO reports that a handful of Republican-controlled state legislatures are considering laws that would prevent their states from coming up with a plan to comply with the potential EPA requirements, thus forcing bureaucrats in faraway Washington D.C. to impose job-killing environmental regulations on the state.
Lawmakers in 36 states used the same basic idea when they voted against setting up an Obamacare-required health insurance “exchange,” a move that forced the federal government to implement its own hated health care law.
The thinking now is that voters will be so angry over another instance of federal overreach that it’ll bolster Republicans’ political strength to roll back the onerous EPA regulations.
It’s a clever chess-like move to counter the EPA’s equally clever move of setting clean air goals – which have yet to be finalized – allowing each state the flexibility of deciding how to meet the federal rules. The EPA wants to give state leaders just enough control to trick them into believing they “own” the process.
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