With his signature on a bill, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has suspended his state’s work on a plan to comply with the controversial efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce carbon emissions using the Clean Power Plan.
The law signed by Brownback suspends the state’s work and makes Kansas the third state to take such action after the U.S. Supreme Court decision nearly three months ago. Virginia and Wyoming did the same thing while Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin issued an executive order last year without waiting on the legislature to take such action.
In Kansas, the GOP led legislature approved it overwhelmingly and sent it to Gov. Brownback. The new law bans state agencies from carrying out studies and other work toward drafting a SIP or State Implementation Plan until the U.S. Supreme Court stay is lifted.
The February ruling from the supreme court was a 5-4 decision that stayed the EPA’s rules requiring states to draw up plans to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants until legal challenges are resolved. Kansas and Oklahoma were among the 27 states that challenged the rules finalized last year by the Obama administration.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Brownback called the EPA rules “an unprecedented expansion of its regulatory power” and “an affront to our constitutional order and the rights of our citizens,” according to the Associated Press. “We will continue to oppose these regulations in court in order to protect Kansans from unnecessary increases in energy costs.”