David Harsanyi: “‘We’re committed to moving forward with those rules,’ White House counselor John Podesta said in a bit of an anti-democratic rant the other day. ‘We’re committed to maintaining the authority and the president’s authority to ensure that the Clean Air Act is fully implemented.’ Don’t worry, though. Podesta says this is ‘actionable science,’ so separation of powers and consent of the governed and other trifling concerns are no longer applicable. But really, after all these years, admitting that executive power is the only way to move (tepidly) forward on climate change policy is basically admitting defeat. Has there ever been a movement that’s spent as much time, energy and treasure and gotten so little in return? I suspect there are three reasons for this failure: 1) It’s difficult to fight basic economics. 2) On energy, Americans, despite what they say, have no desire to try (nor should they). 3) It’s getting more difficult, not less, to believe environmental doom and gloom.”