Good For This Judge

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

A federal judge on Friday struck down a landmark 2007 Minnesota law that bans new power generation from coal, saying it regulates business activities of out-of-state utilities in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause.

U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson enjoined the state from enforcing key sections of the law, which North Dakota coal and utility interests said hampered their ability to find buyers for power from existing coal-fired generating plants or to plan for new ones.

“It is a complete victory for us,” North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said in an interview.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said the state will appeal the ruling and “oppose North Dakota’s intentions with every means at our disposal.”

North Dakota, joined by utilities and coal companies, sued Minnesota two years ago, saying the state’s Next Generation Energy Act violated the U.S. Constitution by improperly restricting electricity sales by North Dakota power companies.

Under Nelson’s order, Minnesota can’t enforce state restrictions on electricity imports from new power plants that increase greenhouse gases. No Minnesota utility has announced plans to do that. But the order, if upheld, could open the door to Minnesota utilities buying more coal-generated power from other states.  http://www.startribune.com/business/255798461.html

While this deals with interstate commerce, hopefully the judge's ruling will also apply to other laws and regulations that have been put in place by Obama and his ilk who have decided that coal is bad and they want to put coal out of business, which is Obama's goal.

Good for the judge.