Twenty-Three AGs Filed Petition for Reconsideration of So-Called Affordable Clean Energy Rule

New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 23 attorneys general in filing a petition for reconsideration of the so-called Affordable Clean Energy Rule with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The so-called Affordable Clean Energy Rule is the EPA’s replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan to reduce climate change-causing carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act. The attorneys general advanced several reasons for reconsideration of the rule, including that the rule relies on two new, flawed interpretations of the Clean Air Act; provides the agency unprecedented prerogative to disapprove of state carbon emissions reduction plans that are more stringent than required under the rule; and relied on a distorted cost-benefit analysis for determining the standard-setting best system of emission reduction (BSER) for carbon emissions.