Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt last week asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to new Environmental Protection Agency rules that would regulate greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources.
Schmidt filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Texas and eleven other states that sued EPA over the proposed rules. West Virginia and Montana joined in the Kansas brief as well.
The states are asking the Supreme Court to review a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which sided with EPA in four consolidated cases. The states argue that EPA exceeded its statutory authority and is unlawfully intruding upon the authority of the states.
"There are enforceable legal limits on the ability of federal agencies, including EPA, to impose regulations," Schmidt said. "In this case, we believe the EPA has overreached the limits of the law."
Kansas is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case to clarify that the EPA has misinterpreted the Clean Air Act and acted outside its legal and Constitutional authority.
"These new EPA regulations will prove costly to Kansas industries and consumers without sufficient proof of benefit to the environment," Schmidt said. "That's not what Congress intended when it granted regulatory authority to the EPA."
The Kansas brief was filed in State of Texas, et al., v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, et al., Case No. 12-1269.
