A federal appeals court has ruled that federal regulators have power over the cost estimates used to determine electricity pricing in New England.

Some of the region’s politicians, such as Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal, complained about the ruling. “State officials acting in the public interest should determine the state’s energy, not unaccountable federal regulators controlled by Big Energy.” That’s a nice piece of politically popular phrasing, if eminently misleading. But then, Mr. Blumethal, et al., have often made political hay with their opposition to rate increases.

What Mr. Blumenthal and his allies don’t talk about when they criticize “Big Energy” is that public officials’ own opposition to virtually any new power-producing facility and the region’s lack of fossil fuel are the major factors in the region’s high energy prices.

The lack of fossil fuel can’t be helped. But while New Englanders talk a good game about alternative energy, too many of them fight it when its production might be near them, such as in the fight to keep Cape Wind out of Nantucket Sound, and blocking wind projects in ski-resort areas as well as some solar and hydro-electric proposals. They also strive to stop cleaner versions of fossil-fuel plants, such as coastal liquefied-natural-gas facilities served by ship. Keeping out such efficient energy producers helps hike local electric rates.

And, of course, nuclear power plants are considered verboten, although they have a far better environmental record than do oil and coal plants.

Meanwhile, foes of new energy facilities in New England ignore such perverse energy operations as cutting off mountaintops in West Virginia and poisoning its rivers, in order to extract coal for electricity generation, not to mention the vast quantities of oil we buy from assorted Third World dictatorships.

Further, as officials of the nonprofit agency that runs the New England grid — Independent System Operator New England — noted in supporting the court’s ruling: “If you were to allow the states to individually set and maintain their own requirements, it could create inconsistent results and lead to reliability problems,” a polite phrase for chaos. ISO, blessedly apolitical, collects the estimates used to set rates.

New Englanders will have to get used to the idea that to have reliable electricity supplies, you need more electricity production — in New England, of all places. And they should bear in mind that electricity production and distribution are intrinsically interstate matters. Thus the Feds must be in charge.