JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – With the support of the Associated Industries of Missouri, Attorney General Chris Koster announced Friday in Branson he will join the lawsuit suing the EPA for issuing new limits on carbon emissions in each state.
The new regulations were issued in August under the authority of the “Clean Air Act.” They call for a 32% reduction in power-plant carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2030.
Koster noted that could cost the state nearly $6 billion. While Koster stated he supported clean energy and noted that many Missouri industries had already started moving toward better emissions standards, he argued that Missouri needed to maintain its competitive advantage as a low energy cost state.
More than 20 states now will soon take their grievances with the federal body to court. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey told the Wall Street Journal in August that was the figure he wanted to join him in a lawsuit against the EPA, who he says, “is trying to convert itself from an environmental regulator to a central planning authority of states’ energy economies.”
AIM president Ray McCarty shared the sentiment.
“Associated Industries of Missouri applauds Attorney General Koster for joining other states in fighting the overreach of the EPA through Obama’s Clean Out Your Wallet Power Plan [sic],” McCarty said in a statement.
Ryan Johnson, president of the Missouri Alliance for Freedom, also supported the move.
“President Obama’s new carbon regulations will have a punitive effect on all Missourians by raising their energy costs,” Johnson said. “The EPA’s so-called ‘clean power plan’ is tantamount to a federal takeover of the electrical system and a controversial scheme that will hurt every Missourian who pays an electricity bill. It is to energy what Obamacare is to health care.”
