Emergency motion filed in Kobach-led lawsuit against EPA

KANSAS (KSNT) - A challenge formed by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and 26 other attorneys general to the Biden administration’s updated climate standards for power plants is landing in the Supreme Court. The attorneys general are urging the Supreme Court to stop the plan with an emergency motion.

On May 9, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a petition against the EPA’s new suite of rules. All of the remaining Republican state attorneys general sued alleging the final rules exceed the EPA’s authority, and are otherwise “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law.”

Last week a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with the Biden administration on the EPA standards rule suite. Included in the suite, a requirement to cut coal and gas-fired power plant emissions by 90% has Kansas energy producers concerned.

“The effort is perhaps subtler than EPA’s last try; it hasn’t given the Rule a special name or coined any new terms. But it’s no less problematic, setting impossible-to-meet standards for regulated facilities, stripping away the States’ discretion to patch up the damage, and ultimately pushing regulated sources into early retirements,” the states wrote. 

“EPA does not expect this rule to affect the current operations of power plants, and therefore anticipates no impacts to electricity generation or grid reliability,” the White House said. “This rule reflects the Administration’s commitment to reduce pollution from the power sector while providing long-term regulatory certainty and operational flexibility.”

According to The Hill, the fossil fuel industry and the two other Republican-led states could still file appeals separately. 

“It seems like we’re heading towards a perfect storm: the EPA’s final rule is going to eliminate (or drastically increase the cost to produce) essential, always-available baseload generation, while at the same time electricity demand is increasing,” Kansas Electric Power Cooperative Senior Vice President Susan B. Cunningham told 27 News.

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