The Biden administration has evidently not learned its lesson despite having its climate regulations slapped down by the Supreme Court of the United States and, as of Wednesday, is again facing a legal challenge from state attorneys general over an EPA rule levied under the guise of protecting Americans' health.
Like other mandates from Biden bureaucrats, the EPA is being challenged on the legality of an air quality rule that "exceeds the agency's statutory authority and otherwise is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law," according to state attorneys general led by Kentucky AG Russell Coleman and West Virginia AG Patrick Morrisey.
In their lawsuit announced on Wednesday, Coleman, Morrisey, and 22 other attorneys general petition the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit "for review of the final agency action taken by Respondents the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Michael S. Regan, in his official capacity as Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, entitled 'Reconsideration of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter'" and declare the EPA's rule "unlawful and vacate the agency's final action."
As Coleman noted in a statement provided to Townhall, the EPA’s new rule "has more to do with advancing President Biden’s radical green agenda than protecting Kentuckians’ health or the environment. This rule will drive jobs and investment out of Kentucky and overseas, leaving employers and hardworking families to pay the price," the Kentucky attorney general warned.
The EPA’s new rule has more to do with advancing President Biden’s radical green agenda than protecting Kentuckians’ health or the environment.
— Attorney General Russell Coleman (@kyoag) March 6, 2024
Today, @WestVirginiaAG and I led a 24-state coalition to challenge this rule and protect American jobs.https://t.co/axv1oCrazr pic.twitter.com/jJROJExWgP
Attorney General Morrisey also noted in a statement that the EPA's latest edict is just "another attempt from unelected bureaucrats to advance Biden’s radical climate agenda without regard to Americans' economic wellbeing," one that means "hardworking families would end up paying the price of this politically-charged left policy."
Coleman and Morrisey's legal challenge to the Biden EPA mandate is joined by state AGs from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming.
The EPA's rule, if allowed to stand, could block permits for new manufacturing facilities in the United States thereby forcing companies to move their production and employees to other countries, prevent infrastructure improvement projects, and lead to burdensome costs for small businesses and farms forced to purchase equipment that complies with the EPA rule.
Coleman's office also noted a letter from more than two dozen industry associations that warned the EPA's efforts to "dramatically" lower allowed emissions "would create a perverse disincentive for American investment" and ultimately "force investment in new facilities to foreign countries with less stringent air standards." That is, like much of the climate alarmist left's efforts, their "save the planet" edicts end up leading to worse outcomes for the environment they claim to champion.