U.S. states hit back at EPA chief over climate rule guidance
Source: Reuters
AUGUST 31, 2017 / 11:52 AM / AN HOUR AGO
Lawrence Hurley and Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic state officials blasted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday for telling governors in what they describe as a legally incorrect letter in March that they do not need to comply with a major climate change regulation.
Fourteen Democratic attorneys general and officials from six cities and counties said the guidance that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt sent to states on March 30 was misleading because the Clean Power Plan enacted under former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, remains on the books despite the Republican Trump administrations plans to unravel it.
The Clean Power Plan was aimed at curbing carbon emissions from power plants. It never took effect because the Supreme Court put it on hold in February 2016.
The state officials said the regulation remains the law of the land even if it is currently on hold and that Pruitts unsolicited legal advice to governors was premature and legally incorrect. They called for Pruitt to retract his letter. The move is the latest tussle between Democrats who back the regulation and the new administration, conservative states and the coal industry, which oppose it.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climatechange-idUSKCN1BB28L
Eliot Rosewater
(31,112 posts)elleng
(130,980 posts)and governors will save us.
lark
(23,123 posts)I believe they have a good chance at winning.