Aery: We Must Challenge the EPA’s Clean Power Plan
We Must Challenge the EPA’s Clean Power Plan
by Robert Aery, AFP Oklahoma
The finalization of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan was met with a flurry of legal challenges from state attorneys general across the country recently. Oklahoma’s own Attorney General Scott Pruitt filed a petitionwith the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the EPA’s final rule, which established guidelines to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired power plants.
In a statement released after the petition’s filing, Attorney General Pruitt asserts that the Clean Power Plan “threatens the reliability and affordability of power generation across the nation because it unlawfully coerces states into shuttering fossil-fuel generated electricity in order to meet the standards proposed in the rule.” Pruitt also states that “[t]he EPA has no authority under the Clean Air Act to achieve what it proposes in the 111(d) rule.” The EPA cites Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act as the authority for its rule to regulate carbon emissions.
Oklahoma’s legal effort is one among many. In a separate petition, 24 other states joined together to ask the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the EPA’s final rule. In addition, 24 states and a group of business coalitions filed separate motions to stay the rule’s implementation last week.
The EPA’s final rule will require Oklahoma to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent by the year 2030. This reduction is slightly more lenient than the 36 percent original goal under the proposed rule released last year. These cuts, however, will still mean painful increases in utility costs for Oklahoma families and businesses.