Idaho Joins Multistate Suit Asking Court to Declare EPA’s New Rule on Power Plants Unlawful

[BOISE] - Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador joined a coalition of 25 states in a lawsuit asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review and declare unlawful the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recently-released rule on existing coal, natural gas, and oil-fired power plants.

The rule would force power plants fueled by coal, oil, or natural gas to capture smokestack emissions - or shut down. It would regulate those plants under the Clean Air Act by imposing more stringent emissions standards. The rule ignored 2022's rebuke from the U.S. Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA, which warned that EPA should not use a narrow regulatory provision to force coal-fired power plants into retirement en masse.

"In an endless pattern, the Biden Administration has ignored its statutory limitations and forced the entire country into an activist agenda," said Attorney General Labrador. "This rule intentionally sets impossible standards to destroy the coal industry. Federal agencies cannot decide on a whim to cripple entire industries, and they are only permitted to work within the bounds that Congress sets for them. I won't stand by while the Administration picks winners and losers in this battle for America's energy independence."

Congress has not given the EPA statutory authorization to remake the electricity grids. That means the agency cannot sidestep Congress to exercise broad regulatory power that would radically transform the nation's energy grids-and force states to fundamentally shift their energy portfolios away from reliable fossil fuel-fired generation.

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming also joined the West Virginia and Indiana-led lawsuit.