Attorney General Pam Bondi joined West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and 22 other states in a lawsuit challenging a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Rule, known as the Clean Power Plan. The rule, as promulgated by the EPA, would result in dramatically higher electricity bills and significantly less reliable service for families, businesses, hospitals and schools across the country. “We will not stand by and allow these unlawful and heavy-handed utility regulations to trample our states’ rights and drastically increase electricity prices in Florida,” said Attorney General Bondi. “We have seen how President Obama’s overreach has created unease in markets, eliminated competition and increased costs for millions of Americans. This new federal rule promulgated by the EPA will have a similar effect on energy production, access and price in Florida and across the country.I have been working with a coalition of attorneys general on this issue ever since the President announced the new rule this summer, and now that the rule has been published, our challenge is moving forward.”
The rule lays out an unrealistic time frame to drastically decrease carbon emissions from electricity production by 2030 and would require the use of costly and unproven technologies. In the documents filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the states make clear that the EPA has no legal authority to promulgate or enforce the rule. The states challenging the rule include West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming, the Arizona Corporation Commission and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.