Colorado attorney general to join challenge of Clean Power Plan
Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said Saturday she will join a multi-state legal challenge to the Clean Power Plan, a federal rule that will require Colorado to sharply cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
“The rule is an unprecedented attempt to expand the federal government’s regulatory control over the states’ energy economy,” Coffman said. “The EPA appears unwilling to accept limits set by Congress in the Clean Air Act and instead is pushing its agenda forward through regulatory rewrites that overreach its legal authority.”
Coffman said the multi-state case will be filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., when the Clean Power Plan is published in the federal register.
The plan is particularly aimed at reducing carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.
As the DBJ’s Cathy Proctor has reported, the extent to which Colorado will have to reduce CO2 emissions under the federal plan depends on which of three different methods is used to calculate emissions in the state, experts say. The reduction could range from 22 percent to 40 percent from 2012 levels by 2030.
The main sources of human-caused CO2 are burning fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas in power plants, and also from burning gasoline and diesel for transportation. A third major source is industrial processes, such as the production of iron, cement or chemicals.
