About a dozen Democratic state attorneys general, with a number of environmental groups, announced legal action against Secretary of Energy Rick Perry on Monday for delaying Obama-era energy efficiency rules.
The environmentalist coalition, led by Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, announced its intent to sue Perry and the Energy Department in 60 days if it doesn’t reverse its decision to delay five energy conservation regulations for appliances.
The environmental groups argue that curtailing the rules would drive up pollution while limiting the number of energy-efficient appliances available to consumers to save them money on their energy bills.
“None of these benefits will accrue, however, unless [the Energy Department] complies with its regulations and publishes the final rules in the Federal Register,” the petition to sue said. “We respectfully request that DOE immediately send the final rules to the Office of the Federal Register and ensure that they are published. If DOE fails to do so, we intend to commence litigation to enforce DOE’s regulatory duty to publish the final rules.”
The five rules cover compressors, uninterruptible power supplies, walk-in coolers and freezers, portable air conditioners and commercial packaged boilers. The regulations were authorized by the Energy Department in December, when former President Barack Obama was still in office, as part of his broad climate change agenda, called the Climate Action Plan.
President Trump issued a presidential order last week repealing much of the Climate Action Plan and setting in motion the reversal of climate regulations under the Environmental Protection Agency.
On top of the environmentalists’ petition, a number of state attorneys general led by New York also filed a separate intent to sue petition with the energy agency, giving Perry 60 days to publish the standards or face litigation.
“Energy efficiency standards are vital to public health, our environment and consumers,” said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is leading the legal effort. “This is yet another example of how the Trump administration’s polluter-first energy policy has real and harmful impacts on the public health, environment — and pocketbooks — of New Yorkers.”
Other states represented on the intent to sue include California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington.
Separately, the states and environmental groups sued the Energy Department over a regulation for ceiling fans on Friday in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
The groups and attorneys general sued the agency for delaying a final rule that would implement efficiency improvements for ceiling fans. The rule was delayed twice. The rules were supposed to become effective March 20 but have been delayed until the fall. The improvements were also mandated under the Obama administration.
The litigation effort is part of an environmentalist legal campaign to counter Trump’s reversal of climate change regulations and other efforts seen as harmful to the environment.
Many of the same environmental groups sued the Trump administration last week over the president’s decision to approve the 1,100-mile Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
