Who do you think should control Montana’s energy future: elected officials in Helena, or unelected federal regulators in Washington, D.C.?

That question lies at the heart of President Obama’s recently finalized carbon regulations, officially known as the Clean Power Plan. Enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency, these sweeping regulations aim to cut carbon dioxide emissions from Montana power plants by 47 percent by 2030. Those are the steepest cuts in the country and more than double what was originally proposed last year. But this can’t happen without shutting down power plants, killing jobs, raising the costs of electricity, and harming Montana’s economy.

This transition will be enormously expensive for Montana families. A study by Energy Ventures Analysis estimates family gas and electricity bills will jump by nearly $500 per year by 2020 — an astounding 31 percent increase. And those estimates were based on the original rule. We’ll likely fare even worse under the final rule, which is more than twice as strict.

Middle-class Montanans will feel the effects in their daily lives. Everything from gas to groceries will become more expensive, since the cost of electricity impacts the cost of doing business for us all. And when prices go up, middle-class budgets get tighter.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs will be similarly squeezed, harming current jobs and future job growth.

As the cost of doing business rises, our state’s job creators will be forced to save money in other areas. As many economic studies have shown, the result will be fewer new jobs, less benefits, lower wages, or even worse — laying off employees. Economists at the American Action Forum estimate it could cost as many as 1,990 Montana jobs as power plants are closed down prematurely.

This federal takeover of America’s energy grid has been sold to the public as both environmentally and economically beneficial. But as various independent studies show, nothing could be further from the truth. For one, the EPA’s own data show it will have negligible impacts on climate change. The agency’s climate models predict it will limit global warming by just 0.018 degrees over the next 85 years. This should come as no surprise. U.S. power plants only produce 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. All told, President Obama’s carbon rule will reduce global emissions by less than 1 percent.

As Montanans, we all believe we should be good stewards of our resources, but not at such a steep cost, and with so little benefit.

At least 15 states are suing to overturn the regulation in federal court—and our own Attorney General Tim Fox should join them. Even liberal Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe — who taught President Obama and went on to serve in his Justice Department — supports their arguments that the CPP violates the federal Clean Air Act and is an unconstitutional overreach in Montana’s state rights. Mr. Fox needs to stand up to the EPA and get Montana onboard with this lawsuit.

But even if the regulation withstands legal review, Montana shouldn’t cede control over it’s energy future to unelected regulators in Washington, D.C. Such important decisions as energy policy — which affect every Montanan — are better left to elected state officials accountable to Montanans rather than unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.

Gov. Bullock would be wise to not kowtow to the Washington elite and remember his responsibility to the people of Montana by refusing to submit an implementation plan. Choosing not to submit a state implementation plan — as is our state’s legal right — is the surest way to protect Montanans against crippling energy costs, lost jobs, and lower standards of living, while also maintaining control over our energy future.

David Herbst, of Belgrade, is the Montana state director of Americans for Prosperity.