Twelve states have joined together in suing Joe Biden over his climate regulatory executive order dubiously titled, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.” Led in the effort by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, the states contend that Biden overstepped his constitutional authority and violated the separation of powers, “the most fundamental bulwark of liberty.”

Schmitt asserted, “Under President Biden’s executive order, which he didn’t have the authority to enact, these hard-working Missourians who have lived and worked this land for generations, could be left in the dust.”

Biden’s EO set up a team to calculate the “social cost” of greenhouse gases and ensure that government agencies account for the full cost of these GHGs, including assessments of “climate risk, environmental justice, and intergenerational equity.” That “social cost” has been estimated to come to a whopping $9.5 trillion. The suit notes, “This number gives some idea of the magnitude of the regulatory costs on the American economy that the Interim Values would justify.”

As is always the case with regulations, there also comes the hidden taxes. The states argue, “In practice, this enormous figure will be used to justify an equally enormous expansion of federal regulatory power that will intrude into every aspect of Americans’ lives — from their cars, to their refrigerators and homes, to their grocery and electric bills.” And these regulations “will destroy jobs, stifle energy production, strangle America’s energy independence, suppress agriculture, deter innovation, and impoverish working families,” the suit alleges. “It undermines the sovereignty of the States and tears at the fabric of liberty.”

Come to think of it, that’s a pretty good summation of Joe Biden’s “unity” agenda.