MADISON -- Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, along with 23 other states, filed a federal lawsuit against another section of the Obama Administration’s “Clean Power Plan” -- which aims to drastically reduce or eliminate coal-based energy generation by reducing carbon dioxide emissions at existing power plants by an average of 32 percent by 2030.
The section known as 111(b), sets carbon emission limits for newly constructed coal- and natural gas-fired power plants.
The suit asks the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. to strike down the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new source performance standards, which effectively prohibit the construction of new, coal-fired power plants, according to the AG's Office.
Below is a statement from the AG's Office:
Other states joining Wisconsin in the lawsuit are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. Other petitioners are the Arizona Corporation Commission, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
Governor Scott Walker released the following statement regarding the Attorney General’s office joining a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 111(b) rule: