by: Emily Manley
Posted: Mar 15, 2021

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri’s attorney general is challenging President Joe Biden’s power with the lawsuit that involves 12 states.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt is leading the lawsuit, claiming the president does not have the authority to issue federal regulations through an executive order he signed in January. Eleven other Republican attorneys general also jumped on the lawsuit.

Schmitt, who filed the lawsuit last Monday, said the order would impact the two largest industries in Missouri: manufacturing and agriculture.

“Not only is this bad policy because it’s going to affect jobs and our economy, but it’s also unconstitutional, it’s illegal,” Schmitt said Monday. “There’s no act of Congress that authorizes the president to go do this.”

The lawsuit claims Biden does not have the authority to federally regulate “social costs of greenhouse gases.”

“We have the President of the Unites States with the stroke of a pen now essentially saying we’re going to inflict billions and trillions of dollars’ worth of damage to the economy and nobody said he could go do that,” Schmitt said.

The attorney general said this executive order will impact household costs.

“The cost of food, the cost of eggs, the cost of milk, the cost of a steak, all of that is up for grabs here,” Schmitt said. “Whether it’s transportation, making highways more expensive, whether it’s the EPA affecting agriculture, so it’s really broad. It’s perhaps the broadest expansion of federal regulations we’ve ever seen.”

Other states joining the lawsuit include Indiana, Kansas, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Arizona, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. All 12 states have Republican attorneys general.

“We are going to add additional regulations because of this social cost of greenhouse gases,” Schmitt said. “It’s a blank check for them to go out there and add additional regulations and cost to recoup that dollar amount from the economy.”

Schmitt said this cost will fall on Missourians and will hurt farmers.