Connecticut part of coalition opposing Trump’s executive order,

“Unfortunately, today’s executive order signifies a lack of leadership from Washington and a dangerous detour from the progress our nation has made to protect the quality of the air we breathe and the health of the American public.” GOV. MALLOY

Connecticut has joined a coalition of 23 states, cities and counties in opposing the executive order issued by President Donald Trump on Tuesday to pave the way for elimination of the Clean Power Plan Rule.

The coalition includes the attorneys general of New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Washington, D.C., as well as the chief legal officers of Boulder, Colo., Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, South Miami and Broward County, Fla.

In a joint statement, the group said: “Addressing our country’s largest source of carbon pollution — existing fossil fuel-burning power plants — is both required under the Clean Air Act and essential to mitigating climate change’s growing harm to our public health, environments and economies. We won’t hesitate to protect those we serve — including by aggressively opposing in court President Trump’s actions that ignore both the law and the critical importance of confronting the very real threat of climate change.”

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Robert Klee both vowed to continue Connecticut’s efforts to advance clean energy and curb greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fuel-burning power plants.

“Unfortunately,” Malloy said in a statement Tuesday, “today’s executive order signifies a lack of leadership from Washington and a dangerous detour from the progress our nation has made to protect the quality of the air we breathe and the health of the American public. I strongly believe that advancing clean energy is about advancing the success of our future.”

The order, he said, “leaves it to the states to lead, which will create a patchwork system that ultimately will reduce the impact we are trying to have on combating climate change.”

Klee said the state will remain committed to the aggressive goal set by its Global Warming Solutions Act to reduce carbon emissions from all sectors by 80 percent below 2001 levels by 2050.

“It is hard to pick a more inauspicious moment to beat a retreat on climate change,” Klee said, “when temperatures on our planet have now surpassed the previous record high three years in a row and when weather patterns of severe storms and drought are more erratic than ever. As a coastal state and a state with watersheds along several major rivers, the impacts of climate change are real and can be severe. We will continue to do our part as a national leader to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to climate change, and look forward to a time when our federal government embraces the important goals and objectives of the Clean Power Plan.”

In a news release, the coalition opposing Trump’s order noted that the Clean Power Plan came out of a decadelong effort by partnering states and cities to require mandatory cuts in the emissions of climate change pollution from fossil fuel-burning power plants under the Clean Air Act. The plan, along with the companion rule applicable to new, modified and reconstructed power plants, would control these emissions by setting limits on the amount of climate change pollution that power plants can emit. The rule for existing plants is expected to eliminate as much climate change pollution as is emitted by more than 160 million cars a year — or 70 percent of the nation’s passenger cars, according to the news release.

EPA adopted the plan through a multiyear stakeholder process that drew heavily on the experience of states and utilities in reducing power plant greenhouse gas emissions, the coalition said. Several states, including Connecticut, already have taken a leading role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by moving forward with their own programs. These states recognize that, on such a crucial issue that already is costing taxpayers billions of dollars in storm response and other costs, state action alone will not be enough, and strong federal actions like the Clean Power Plan are needed, the coalition said.

In November 2015, a coalition of 25 states, cities and counties intervened in defense of the Clean Power Plan against legal challenge in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court heard oral argument en banc for a full day in late September. A decision is expected soon, the coalition said.