US Clean Power Plan Final Rule – States ready to rally against Obama’s reviled climate plan

Sixteen states are planning to file a lawsuit as soon as the rule is published, with business groups and possibly more states ready to join. The lawsuit will challenge the constitutionality of the rule, saying that the EPA is exceeding its authority.

Based on the timeline the EPA provided to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in August, the rule is slated to be published by the end of October, say lawyers tracking the rule.

In September, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the Clean Power Plan was sent to the Federal Register on Sept. 4 awaiting publication in October.

In a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner earlier this month, Oliver Potts, the director of the Federal Register, told Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia that he was unable to provide information on the timing of the rule.

Capito, who is chairwoman of subcommittees in both the environment and appropriations committees, asked the Office of the Federal Register to confirm when the EPA sent the rule, whether or not the agency has sent all information required for publication of the climate rules, if the EPA specified a specific date it wished to have the rule published and when the rule would be published.

Potts said none of the information could be disclosed as per federal rules.

Capito argued that delaying publication of the power plant regulations would slow state challenges to the Clean Power Plan being led by her state. She said that is troublesome because states are required to begin drafting compliance plans and submit them to the EPA by Sept. 16, 2016.

“Further delays in publication will imperil the ability of Congress and the federal judiciary to meaningfully review this rule before states must begin the process of complying with its costly mandates,” Capito wrote in a letter send to Potts Oct. 5.

In addition to 16 states ready to sue the agency, Capito also disclosed plans for the GOP to attack the rule.

“A prepublication version of the Clean Power Plan rule has been released and in response, I drafted a Congressional Review Act Resolution of Disapproval that would repeal the existing plant rule in its entirety,” she wrote. “Similar legislation is developing in the House of Representatives.”