16 states set to sue EPA Friday

The decision came Thursday after the EPA told reporters that it would publish its suite of emission rules for power plants, including the Clean Power Plan, in the Friday edition of the Federal Register. Publication of the rules makes them law, and therefore challengeable in federal appeals court.

West Virginia’s attorney general’s office confirmed Thursday that the legal challenge will come Friday morning, and that states, after hearing the news, were scrambling to put together announcements and coordinate a joint press conference Friday morning.

The states are opposed to the Clean Power Plan, which requires states to reduce their emissions by a third by 2030. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s state of Kentucky is part of the suit, which says the rules are an example of gross federal overreach and an affront to states’ rights and the Constitution.

West Virginia and Kentucky are also coal states. They say the rule would decimate their economies by forcing the nation’s coal-fired power plants to close in favor of renewable energy such as wind and solar.

Mike Duncan, president and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, said “EPA is finally opening the floodgates for litigation against its deeply flawed, illegal carbon rule.”

The rule is part of President Obama’s climate change agenda, which Duncan said is in jeopardy as the administration seeks to hash out a successful global climate agreement in December in Paris.

“Officials preparing for the upcoming climate change talks in Paris should take note of the widespread opposition from policymakers and elected officials across the United States who are working overtime to protect their constituents, state economies and the nation as a whole from the president’s reckless pursuit of his climate legacy,” he said. “We are hopeful they will be successful and that the courts act quickly and decisively to quash this illegal rule.”