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发帖数: 29846 | 1 16 states ask Obama admin to put power plant rules on hold
By JOSH LEDERMAN | August 5, 2015 | 5:15 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The campaign to stop President Barack Obama's sweeping
emissions limits on power plants began taking shape Wednesday, as 16 states
asked the government to put the rules on hold while a Senate panel moved to
block them.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who is leading the charge
against the rules, banded together with 15 other state attorneys general in
a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Gina McCarthy requesting that
the agency temporarily suspend the rules while they challenge their legality
in court. The letter called for the EPA to respond by Friday.
The EPA and the White House both said they believe the limits are legal and
have no plans to put them on hold. But by submitting the formal request
anyway, the attorneys general are laying the groundwork to ask the courts to
suspend the emissions limits instead.
"These regulations, if allowed to proceed, will do serious harm to West
Virginia and the U.S. economy," Morrisey said. "That is why we are taking
quick action to bring this process to a halt."
The 16 states and a handful of others are preparing to sue the Obama
administration to block the rules permanently by arguing they exceed Obama's
authority. Bolstered by a recent Supreme Court ruling against the
administration's mercury limits, opponents argued that states shouldn't have
to start preparing to comply with a rule that may eventually get thrown out
by the courts.
The speedy opposition from the states came two days after Obama unveiled the
final version of the rules, which mark the first time the U.S. has ever
limited carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. Obama's revised
plan mandates a 32 percent cut in emissions nationwide by 2030, compared to
2005 levels — a steeper cut than in his earlier proposal.
Most of the attorneys general signing the letter Wednesday are Republicans.
Yet they were joined by Jack Conway of the coal-producing state of Kentucky.
Conway and Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear are both Democrats, but have joined
the state's Republican leaders in denouncing Obama's power plant limits,
which form the centerpiece of his plan to fight climate change.
Although the most serious threat to Obama's power plant rules is in the
courts, lawmakers in Congress are also pursuing legislative means to stop
them. The first vote came Wednesday in the Senate Environment and Public
Works Committee, where a bill blocking the rules passed the GOP-controlled
panel by a voice vote — but not without a bit of drama.
Over the protests of boycotting Democrats, the Senate GOP-controlled panel
approved legislation designed to block the Obama administration from
implementing the tough new standards.
Democrats walked out of the committee meeting in protest of a separate bill
about pesticides, arguing it should have been the subject of a fact-finding
hearing. Lacking the necessary quorum for a vote, Republican Chairman Jim
Inhofe of Oklahoma reconvened the meeting in a lunchroom just off the Senate
floor, where the aroma of a just-completed GOP lunch was still wafting in
the air.
The voice vote approving the bill sends it to the full Senate, where a
filibuster battle awaits. Obama has vowed to veto any such legislation, and
Republicans have yet to prove they can muster the votes to override his veto
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