Dem states want court to decide on Obama climate rule

A group of attorneys for Democratic states and cities is asking a federal appeals court to issue a ruling on former President Barack Obama’s landmark climate change rule for power plants.

The coalition, led by Acting New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, are fighting back against the Trump administration’s request to delay the litigation over the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan for another 60 days.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard arguments in the case in September 2016. But President Trump took office before the court ruled, and federal attorneys successfully asked the judges to hold off on their ruling to let the administration work through its process of repealing the climate regulation.

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It has now been more than a year since the case was first delayed, and the attorneys for 16 Democratic states, six cities and a county are getting anxious.

“EPA has neither completed a rulemaking nor even committed to a deadline for doing so,” the attorneys wrote Wednesday to the court, saying they “reiterate their continued opposition to EPA’s attempt to stave off judicial review of the legality of the Clean Power Plan based on EPA’s plans to repeal (and possibly replace) the Plan at some undisclosed future date.”

Environmental groups filed their own brief Wednesday, saying that the delay means that the EPA isn’t fulfilling what they are is an obligation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

“Delay in this context is not only a violation of the Clean Air Act; it causes irreversible harm to our members and to society at large,” the groups wrote.

The court has asked the EPA to keep it updated on the process of repealing the rule.

The agency said in its filing last week seeking a new 60-day extension that it is “currently reviewing” public comments submitted in response to its proposals released last year to repeal the regulation and consider replacing it. Lawyers did not provide a timeframe for completion of the process.