KY among states suing Federal Government to halt ‘carbon rule’

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KYOAG) – Attorney General Jack Conway today announced that Kentucky, along with 23 other states, filed a lawsuit challenging the Obama Administration’s Section 111(d) Rule, an unlawful plan to radically restructure the way electricity is produced and consumed throughout the country. The Rule, as promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), would result in dramatically higher electricity bills and significantly less reliable service for families, businesses, hospitals and schools across America.

The Rule purports to require States to reorganize their energy grids, in order to reduce carbon emissions from electric-generating plants by 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. The Rule could cost over $25 billion annually and these costs will ultimately be paid by consumers who could see their electric bills go up by 10% or more.

The Rule will also cause coal miners and other hardworking people to lose their jobs, concentrating the pain from the unlawful rule on those who can least afford it.

In the documents filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the States make clear that EPA has no legal authority to promulgate or enforce the 111(d) Rule.

States have argued to the EPA for more than a year that the Rule is illegal for multiple reasons. In particular, the EPA lacks authority under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act to force States to fundamentally restructure their electric grids by requiring them to use less coal-fired energy and build costly wind and solar facilities. As a result, the Rule effectively requires a “cap-and-trade” regime without statutory authority and which has been specifically rejected by a Democratically-controlled Congress. The Rule is also illegal because it seeks to require States to regulate coal-fired power plants under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, even though the EPA already regulates those same plants under Section 112 of the Act. This form of double regulation is flatly prohibited by the Clean Air Act.

The other States challenging the Rule include West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming, the Arizona Corporation Commission, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

To view the petition,  click here.

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