President Obama is about to release a plan to fight imaginary global warming by shutting down many coal fired power plants. Coal fired power plants produce a lot of carbon dioxide, which is a key element in the imaginary theory that CO2 causes global warming. I say imaginary because (1) there hasn't been any global warming in 18 years, (2) man-made CO2 accounts for only about 3% of global CO2, which is mostly natural, and (3) CO2 is a tiny percentage of the upper atmosphere, and is not present in enough volume to be substantially trapping heat.

But Obama's plan to shut power plants is very real. To use one of his favorite words, he's on an "Environmental Crusade," only his target this time isn't Christianity, but the electricity that powers our homes and businesses. Obama wants to replace coal with wind and solar, which is exponentially more expensive and unreliable in times of darkness (which seems to happen every day!) and times of little wind.

In the strongest action ever taken in the United States to combat climate change, President Obama will unveil on Monday a set of environmental regulations devised to sharply cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s power plants and ultimately transform America’s electricity industry.

The rules are the final, tougher versions of proposed regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency announced in 2012 and 2014. If they withstand the expected legal challenges, the regulations will set in motion sweeping policy changes that could shut down hundreds of coal-fired power plants, freeze construction of new coal plants and create a boom in the production of wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources.

The "boom" the Times refers to will either plunge millions of Americans into darkness, or increase their electricty bills. Or both.

“Climate change is not a problem for another generation, not anymore,” Mr. Obama said in a video posted on Facebook at midnight Saturday.

Actually, it's not a problem for our generation either. But let's turn to our hero, Mitch McConnell. He's from Kentucky, a big coal producing state. Surely he has a plan to fight this insanity.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader, has started an unusual pre-emptive campaign against the rules, asking governors to refuse to comply. Attorneys general from more than a dozen states are preparing legal challenges against the plan. Experts estimate that as many as 25 states will join in a suit against the rules and that the disputes will end up before the Supreme Court.

Good plan. Fight it in court. Wait, who's been stacking the courts for the past six and a half years? Obama? Maybe not such a good plan.

There is a way to stop this, but McConnell will never, ever do it. All he has to do is attach a provision to the next budget in the fall or the vote to raise the next debt ceiling. All the provision would need say is that "No expenditure of funds of the federal government shall be used to enforce rules which place limitations on emissions of CO2." Problem solved. Instantly. Really. No years of court battles.

Of course, Obama would veto a debt ceiling increase or budget without a provision, and then, after he "shut down" the government (a misnomer big enough for another article), he would blame the Republicans for it.

But, technically speaking, McConnell can refuse to pass an extension of the debt ceiling without this limitation. He could stop this in its tracks. Of course, the resulting impasse might upset the big boys at the Chamber of Crony Capitalism who would be disturbed that their subsidies might be interrupted, even for a few days.

So the irony is that McConnell, who has the power to stop it, instead has already preemptively waved the white flag, told governors to fight this on their own, and is hailed by Republicans for "resisting", for having the boldness to suggest that others fight the fight that he refuses to engage in himself.

This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.