AG Pruitt fighting EPA for coal
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt along with attorneys general from 16 other states filed a comment letter with the EPA opposing the agency’s unlawful plan to regulate power plants.
“The EPA’s proposed power plant rule is an attempt to bypass the legislative process to impose the president’s climate action plan which has no legal basis or force of law. This EPA rule picks winners and losers in the energy context by elevating renewable energy sources at the expense of fossil fuel-fired electric generation,” Attorney General Pruitt said.
“The Clean Air Act does not grant the EPA the power to set energy policy for the states – yet this is precisely what the agency is attempting through this unlawful power plant rule. The EPA is attempting to legislate through regulation, and that is not how our system works. Oklahoma and other states will always challenge the EPA, or any other federal agency, when it exceeds the statutory authority it is granted. This proposed power plant rule should be withdrawn or at least stayed until the courts have a chance to weigh in on legal challenges against these regulations,"Attorney General Pruitt said.
In the letter Pruitt writes, “This proposal threatens the state’s core interests, the proper functioning of their resource and energy policies, and the very federal structure of our government. The commenting states have an obligation to their citizens to vigorously resist this unlawful proposal. EPA should immediately withdraw the proposal, and if it does not do so, EPA should at the very least ensure that any final Section 111(d) regulations are otherwise stayed until all judicial challenges to those regulations are concluded.”
States joining Oklahoma in opposition of the new proposal are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.