12 US states sue Biden over climate change order

Twelve Republican-led states have sued President Joe Biden over his first executive order aimed at climate change, Report informs referring to the USA Today.

The federal lawsuit, led by Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt of Missouri, argues Biden violated the separation of powers clause in the Constitution because Congress, not the president, has the power to regulate.

On his first day in the White House, Biden signed Executive Order 13990, directing federal agencies to calculate the ‘social cost’ of greenhouse gas pollution by estimating ‘monetized damages’ to inform future federal regulations.

This includes changes in net agricultural productivity, human health, property damage from increased flood risk and the value of ecosystem services.

Republican state attorneys general from Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah joined the suit.

Orders that Biden signed Jan. 27 elevated climate change as a national security concern, committed to the goal of conserving at least 30 percent (an increase from 12 percent) of all federal land and water by 2030 and built on his economic policy agenda to direct federal agencies to procure carbon pollution-free electricity and clean, zero-emission vehicles to create good-paying, union jobs and stimulate clean energy industries.