NEW YORK--The Attorneys General of New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, the District of Columbia, and the City of New York issued the following statement in response to the filing by the state of West Virginia in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that seeks a stay of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Rule:
“West Virginia and other states have filed a request to stay the Clean Power Plan, a new federal rule that will protect Americans from the harmful impacts of climate change on our economies, environment, and public health. Like West Virginia’s challenge to the proposed rule, which was dismissed by the courts, this filing is premature. If and when requests to stay the final rule are timely filed, after the rule has been published in the Federal Register, our coalition will formally oppose them.”
Attorney General Schneiderman, joined by a coalition of nine other attorneys general and the City of New York, wrote to the EPA last week expressing “strong support” for final rules of the Obama Administration that – for the first time – limit emissions of climate change pollution from existing and new fossil fuel-burning power plants. The letter stated that the coalition members fully anticipate defending the rules if they are challenged in court.