Oklahoma was among 27 states that took their fight this week against the EPA’s carbon rule to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The rule was finalized in May and quickly led to a lawsuit by Republican attorneys general from 27 states and industry groups who attempted to block the landmark rule.
The rule requires sweeping cuts in carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants as well as new natural gas plants. President Biden’s administration finalized the rule in April and it was challenged by several lawsuits filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
West Virginia and Indiana spearheaded one of the suits and Oklahoma joined the effort.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond did not have a statement regarding this week’s move to the Supreme Court. But his spokesman Phil Bacharach confirmed Oklahoma had “joined this effort ahd the most recent request to the US Supreme Court. West Virginia has taken the lead on this and we are fully supportive.”
The step to the Supreme Court brought a statement from Michelle Bloodworth, President and CEO of America’s Power, a national trade organization with the sole missoin of advocating on behalf of the U.S. coal fleet and its supply chain.
“We commend these states for asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop EPA from implementing the Clean Power Plan 2.0. Halting the rule until legal challenges are settled is necessary to prevent utilities from wasting hundreds of millions of ratepayer dollars in an attempt to comply with a rule that is not only an illegal overreach but will undermine the reliability of our electricity system, reduce supplies of electricity at the same time electricity demand is exploding, and allow the administration to impose its unrealistic and expensive energy preferences on states and consumers,” stated Bloodworth.
“By issuing the rule, EPA has ignored the concerns that states, grid operators, utility commissioners, America’s Power, and many others have expressed about the rule’s impacts.”
Bloodworth accused the EPA of “overreaching again” and said its latest move was “just as EPA did when it issued the original Clean Power Plan under former President Obama.”
