Dem attorneys general pledge to protect climate rule

A group of Democratic attorneys general said Friday they would work to protect the Obama administration’s climate rule for power plants from conservatives’ legal challenges.

The states will file motions supporting the Clean Power Plan as early as next week, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Friday. 

{mosads}“These rules have a sound foundation in both science and the law, and build upon strategies New York and other states have used to successfully cut power plant emissions,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “And these rules are critical for protecting our public health, welfare, and environment today and into the future.”

After the Obama administration finalized the Clean Power Plan in August, 16 Democratic attorneys general pledged to defend the law from the wave of lawsuits Republicans had long promised to file against it.

On Friday, when the Obama administration published the rule in the Federal Register, a coalition of 24 states filed suit against it, asking the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to overturn the rule and block its implementation until the courts can consider its merits. 

But Democrats and environmentalists have defended the rule’s legality and projected confidence that Republicans will fail in the courts.

On a call with reporters Friday, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said he thinks the rule “is necessary and practical and doable.”

The legal complaints Republicans are making against the rule, Miller said, “can be resolved by, partly, common sense and legal interpretations that make sense and are rational and are consistent with the goals of the statue.”