- Office of Attorney General Maura Healey
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Chloe Gotsis
Boston — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey today joined a coalition of 20 states and localities in urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to rescind the unsolicited and incorrect legal advice that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt provided regarding state and industry compliance with existing federal regulations governing carbon pollution from power plants, known as the Clean Power Plan.
In March, Administrator Pruitt sent unsolicited letters to the governors of 47 states asserting that the Supreme Court’s stay of the Clean Power Plan pending the conclusion of litigation provides states and power companies with “day-to-day tolling” of the rule’s compliance deadlines. Today’s letter from the attorneys general contends that there is no automatic extension, and the Clean Power Plan “remains the law of the land” unless and until EPA lawfully replaces it.
“Scott Pruitt’s obsession with undoing environmental protections is completely unprecedented,” said AG Healey. “We will continue to work with our colleagues across the country to protect and defend the Clean Power Plan and other critical regulations that safeguard our planet and public health.”
The coalition’s letter identifies two significant problems with Administrator Pruitt’s legal guidance: one, there is no legal support for a unilateral extension of regulatory deadlines through a letter from the EPA administrator; and, two, there is no legal basis to automatically extend the Clean Power Plan’s compliance deadlines – which are months or years away – for every day that the litigation remains pending. In fact, EPA itself found earlier this year that power plants are well on their way to meeting their compliance obligations.
The attorneys general also claim that it was inappropriate for Pruitt to personally send the letter because he challenged the proposed and final Clean Power Plan in his role as Oklahoma Attorney General and has recused himself from litigation regarding the Clean Power Plan.
Pruitt’s letter to the governors followed an executive order signed by President Trump two days earlier, which the administration described as paving the way to eliminate the Clean Power Plan rule. Following the executive order, AG Healey joined a coalition of 23 states and localities in pledging to aggressively oppose the order in court.
The Clean Power Plan is the culmination of a decade-long effort by partnering states and cities to require mandatory cuts in the emissions of climate change pollution from fossil fuel-burning power plants under the Clean Air Act. The Clean Power Plan, along with the companion rule applicable to new, modified, and reconstructed power plants, controls these emissions by setting limits on the amount of climate change pollution that power plants can emit. The rule for existing plants is expected to eliminate as much climate change pollution as is emitted by more than 160 million cars a year – or 70 percent of the nation’s passenger cars.
President Barack Obama announced the Clean Power Plan in August 2015. Shortly after the EPA finalized the rule, state and industry petitioners challenged the Clean Power Plan in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Massachusetts, New York and California led a coalition of 25 states, cities and counties in intervening in defense of the Clean Power Plan. In February 2016, the Supreme Court granted a stay of the rule pending judicial review by the D.C. Circuit and thereafter the Supreme Court. On Aug. 8, 2017, the D.C. Circuit decided to continue its temporary hold on the litigation, while EPA considers how to implement President Trump’s executive order.
For years, the Massachusetts AG’s Office has been a leader in pursuing federal regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, including leading a coalition of states, in coordination with numerous environmental groups, in the landmark Supreme Court case of Massachusetts v. EPA.
The letter was signed by the attorneys general or chief legal officers of Massachusetts, New York, California, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, the District of Columbia, Boulder, Colo., Chicago, Ill., New York City, Philadelphia, Penn., Broward County, Fla. and South Miami, Fla.
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