Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
5/8/2015
The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality has been prohibited from developing a state implementation plan (SIP) to come into compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emission standards for coal-fired power plants under an executive action signed by Republican Governor Mary Fallin late last week. The proposed regulation, dubbed the “Clean Power Plan” requires states to develop SIPs to meet federally set state specific emissions reductions goal. A recent campaign led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has called on states to refuse to submit SIPs based on a belief that the Clean Power Plan will be struck down in court following its finalization this summer. “The development of a SIP may only proceed if such action is determined to be required by the Attorney General of Oklahoma or a court of competent jurisdiction. Additionally, such action may not begin absent express written authority of the Governor of Oklahoma,” the order says. “No state should comply with the clean power plan if it means surrendering decision making authority to the EPA,” Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said of the regulation this week during a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety.
Fallin also vetoed a piece of legislation going through the state government that would have given Pruitt the authority to reject a SIP if he were to find it unconstitutional. The bill was redundant in the face of the executive order, Fallin said, and would have required the development of a SIP instead of prohibiting it. “I stand with our Legislature and our attorney general in opposing the EPA’s unconstitutional and ill-conceived power-grab,” Fallin said in a press release last week. “However, we do not need to spend a lot of time and money to develop a plan that we have no intention of implementing and every intention of rejecting, which is what this bill requires. The executive order issued earlier this week offers the state the clearest path to fighting these EPA carbon mandates.”
Pruitt Questions Nature of Federal Implementation Plan
Under the proposed EPA rule, if a state does not submit a SIP, the EPA will enforce a federal implementation plan (FIP). Details of what the FIP will look like are unknown at this point but the plan is expected to be released with the finalized Clean Power Plan mid-summer. The EPA has argued that it would be in a state’s best interest to develop a SIP as the states are better qualified to develop an action plan suited to their unique circumstances.
Regardless, the SIP and FIP system in the rule has resulted in some discord among the states. Pruitt, who has been an active opponent to the rules, called the FIP a “gun to the head” during this week’s hearing. “If this is such a flexible arrangement that’s offered to the states, if this is really within the bounds of cooperative federalism, why is it that the EPA presently is in the process of developing a uniform federal implementation plan that they’re going to put on the shelf to then say to the states unless you act a particular way, unless you act consistent with the rule this is what you’re going to get?” Pruitt said. “That to me does not sound like cooperation. That does not sound like partnership.”
Pruitt joined an ongoing suit against the EPA regarding the regulations in August and plans to continue to challenge the legality of the regulation following its finalization. “I can say with great confidence that if the EPA does in fact move forward with the uniform FIP the EPA will be challenged in court by Oklahoma and other like-minded states,” he said.