Don’t be fooled by the name, the Inflation Reduction Act marks a turning point in our fight against climate change, or so Democrats assure us. Whether or not such lofty expectations pan out, the Democratic signatories of the act inadvertently vindicate the Supreme Court they now deride as illegitimate.

Democrats’ climate ambitions crumbled in June when the Supreme Court invalidated the revival of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, an EPA mandate requiring fossil fuel companies either to reduce production or subsidize renewables. In West Virginia v. EPA, the high court determined the agency’s existing statutory authority could not justify such a mandate. Writing for a six-justice majority, Chief Justice John Roberts explained that agencies could not exercise “unheralded” and expansive regulatory powers over society unless Congress had clearly delegated to them that authority. After all, it is fundamental to democratic governance that the people make major policy decisions, not bureaucrats who are unfamiliar and unaccountable to voters.