Sixteen States Seek Administrative Stay Of Clean Power Plan; Court Challenge Looms

摘要

Sixteen states asked the Environmental Protection Agency to administratively stay its recently finalized Clean Power Plan until legal challenges can be resolved. The states, led by West Virginia, argue the EPA's Clean Power Plan is illegal because it usurps state authority over intrastate energy policy and exceeds the agency's authority under Section 111 (d) of the Clean Air Act. The states said in their Aug. 5 petition for a stay that they will seek "emergency relief in court" if the EPA fails to respond by Aug. 7. "The lion's share of the Section 111 (d) rule relies not upon regulating coal-fired power plants to make them more environmentally friendly, but on requiring states to adopt broad energy policy measures to replace demand for coal-fired energy with demand for EPA's preferred sources of energy," the states said. "This novel approach is unlawful in numerous respects."