Clean Power Plan Opponents Not Ready To Go Down Without A Fight

After President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency announced sweeping plans to significantly reduce US greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years, several organizations and states took issue with the new rules. Now, industry representatives and state attorneys general are

against the Clean Power Plan (CPP) in an effort to stop the changes from taking place.

Several US states have come forward and said they will not cooperate with the Clean Power Plan's requirements and refuse to write a plan to meet their new emissions targets. States dependent on income from industries like coal mining, which will have to be significantly revamped to meet the new rules, say the CPP is damaging to their economies and will have lasting effects on their revenues on unemployment rates.

The lawsuits are likely to attack the EPA as many critics claim that the agency doesn't have the authority to make such far-reaching regulations. The CPP was issued under the Clean Air Act, however

to the act have raised questions as to whether or not the agency has the ability to regulate pollutants in this way.

Another reason states say the CPP can't stand is the fact that the EPA may not be permitted to create legislation that covers such a wide range of topics. Opponents claim that the agency is only allowed to regulate individual power plants. As the CPP includes objectives like shifting to renewables, many claim the plan's targets are outside the agency's jurisdiction.