Healey will sue to keep carbon limits
EPA head to relax Obama rule
State Attorney General Maura Healey is among a wide range of liberal officials pledging to sue the Trump administration over its move to kill an Obama-era effort to limit carbon emissions from coalfired power plants.
It’s “essential that the EPA address our country’s largest source of carbon pollution
— existing fossil fuel-burning power plants — to mitigate climate change,” said Healey, a Democrat.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said yesterday he would be issuing a new set of rules overriding the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of former President Barack Obama’s drive to curb global climate change.
“The war on coal is over,” Pruitt declared in a speech in the coalmining state of Kentucky, adding that no federal agency should ever use its authority to “declare war on any sector of our economy.”
Pruitt’s rule wouldn’t become final for months, and is then likely to face several legal challenges.
Healey said Massachusetts, with its partners, will be suing to protect the plan, which she contends violates the law and imperils the future of the planet.
Closely aligned with the oil and gas industry in his home state of Oklahoma, Pruitt rejects the consensus of scientists that man-made emissions from burning fossil fuels are the primary driver of global climate change.
President Trump, who appointed Pruitt and shares his skepticism of climate science, promised to kill the Clean Power Plan during the 2016 campaign as part of a broader pledge to revive the nation’s struggling coal mines.