Twenty-Three AGs Filed Lawsuit Challenging EPA’s Affordable Clean Energy Rule

AUGUST 13, 2019

New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 23 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging the so-called Affordable Clean Energy rule, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan to reduce climate change-causing carbon emissions. In a statement, AG James condemned the Trump administration’s decision to replace the Clean Power Plan with a “do-nothing rule,” and highlighted the “groundbreaking coalition of states and cities from across the nation” that joined her office in the lawsuit. Among other infirmities, the EPA’s rule would have virtually no impact on reducing harmful carbon emissions, while obstructing the progress of coalition states toward clean, renewable, and affordable electricity generation.