In order to prevent significant and imminent harm to scores of states’ economies and millions of consumers nationwide, the National Mining Association Friday asked a federal court to stay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan until legal challenges to the rule are resolved.
NMA’s filing in D.C. Circuit Court, together with similar filings from states all over the nation and business interests, confirms the growing concern with the immediate economic consequences of EPA’s plan to transform the nation’s electric grid. The rule’s publication in the Federal Register Friday formally sets in motion a protracted process for legal challenges to the rule.
“We are today asking the court to weigh carefully the far-reaching harm this rule will inflict immediately, well in advance of its effective date,” said NMA President and CEO Hal Quinn. “The immediacy of substantial harm from this power plant rule is plain from EPA’s own data that show it will cause more than 200 coal-fired power plants to close before courts have time to decide the legality of the rule.”
A statement by the PA Coal Alliance said, “The EPA waited almost three months to publish the carbon emissions rule in the Federal Register. Unfortunately, for a state like Pennsylvania that is pushing to submit a final plan by September 2016, this “run the clock” ploy by the EPA has cut into our already limited time. Numerous states and organizations stand ready to litigate and it is our hope that this process moves quickly and that a stay is granted so that legal challenges can be addressed prior to Pennsylvania’s submission.”
EPA’s 2012 mercury rule was a bad omen of pain to come, said Quinn. “What happened with EPA’s mercury rule cannot be repeated. That costly regulation resulted in far greater closure of power plants than EPA anticipated, and was promulgated, as was this rule, with cavalier disregard for its probable costs to the economy.”
While that rule was ultimately found unlawful due to EPA’s failure to consider costs, the damage it imposed to the grid and the economy cannot be undone.
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