Dive Brief:
- Florida Attorney Gemeral Pam Bondi is leading 16 other states in a lawsuit arguing rules governing the carbon emissions during startup, shutdown and malfunctioning of power plants overstep the federal government's authority.
- Earlier this summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule requiring 35 states to revise implementation plans for emissions during SSM events.
- The lawsuit argues that while EPA has the authority to set national standards, it is up to states to determine how to meet them.
Dive Insight:
A coalition of states are suing the EPA, but it's not what you think.
The Clean Power Plan lawsuits are brewing, but Florida this week filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging another rule, this one covering emissions at startup, shutdown and during malfunctions (SSM). In June, the EPA sent almost three dozen states back to the drawing board, instructing them that their implementation plans were "substantially inadequate."
“We will not step aside while the EPA, through heavy-handed federal overreach, threatens to upend a system that the EPA has approved multiple times and has provided a consistent, reliable framework to safely provide electricity to millions of Floridians across the state," Bondi said in a statement.
While the Clean Air Act gives the federal government authority to set standards regarding harmful pollutants, Bondi said it remains the states' responsibility to determine how to implement those standards.
Florida was joined in the lawsuit by: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina.
That list of states may look similar to those expected to file a lawsuit against the final Clean Power Plan regulations. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has signaled he will renew his state's opposition to the plan, calling it "fundamentally flawed and illegal." He and 14 other states have indicated they will file a legal challenge.