Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has advice for states that don’t like the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed power plant emission rule: Don’t comply.
“Don’t be complicit in the administration’s attack on the middle class. Think twice before submitting a state plan — which could lock you in to federal enforcement and expose you to lawsuits — when the administration is standing on shaky legal ground and when, without your support, it won’t be able to demonstrate the capacity to carry out such political extremism,” the Kentucky Republican said in a Lexington [Ky.] Herald-Leader op-ed.
McConnell campaigned on scrapping the EPA proposal, which aims to slash electricity emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.The final rule is due by mid-summer. Supporters say it will blunt the effects of climate change while also taking older, dirtier power plants offline, but opponents say the rule would raise energy costs and sacrifice coal industry jobs.
But there’s little sense that a congressional strategy to ax the rule exists, given that President Obama has vowed to veto any legislation that challenges the regulation, which is the centerpiece of the president’s climate agenda. The state abstinence approach would, at the very least, generate momentum for an eventual court challenge once the EPA finalizes the rule, McConnell said.
“Refusing to go along at this time with such an extreme proposed regulation would give the courts time to figure out if it is even legal, and it would give Congress more time to fight back. We’re devising strategies now to do just that,” he said.
Conservative opponents have said the agency’s authority to implement the rule is dubious.
That’s because the EPA is relying on getting emissions reductions beyond individual smokestacks by suggesting states could lower their carbon footprint through adding renewable energy and customer-side energy efficiency. The agency and its backers, however, contend language in the Clean Air Act covers its plan.
If states don’t submit a compliance plan for EPA to review, the agency can implement a federal framework for emissions reductions. It can also penalize states by withdrawing federal highway funds and making it harder to secure permits for expanding factories and other large industrial emitters.
But some legal experts think the EPA federal plan might only be able to call on cuts at power plants, such as by boosting efficiency and converting them to run on cleaner-burning natural gas instead of coal.
McConnell advocated testing that theory.
“So for now, hold back on the costly process of complying. A better outcome may yet be possible,” he said.
