If the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency moves ahead with its already controversial power plant rules that would create severe restrictions on carbon pollution, it can expect a fight from Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
It is what he pledged in a statement offered to OK Energy Today.
“We will vigorously oppose this federal overreach in court if the EPA follows through on this ill-advised plan,” stated Drummond when reached for a comment about the plan that some Republican states are already fighting.
“President Biden’s EPA is intent on decimating Oklahoma’s energy industry, this time with a proposed rule that would have catastrophic consequences on the economy”
His statement suggested Oklahoma might join any lawsuits that are being planned against the EPA. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who was successful in a similar lawsuit under the Obama administration thinks he would see the same kind of result under Biden’s administration.
“We expect that we would once again prevail in court against this out-of-control agency,” said Morrisey upon release of the Biden proposal.
If the EPA goes ahead with the proposed rules, they would require nearly all of the nation’s coal and large gas plants to reduce or capture an estimated 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2038.
The EPA’s proposal came after the Supreme Court ruled in the West Virginia v. EPA case that the EPA could not use the Clean Air Act to force utilities to shift away from coal-fired power plants to renewable sources of energy. However, the court left other options available including requiring pollution limits which would force gas and coal plants to capture and store the carbon pollution.