As expected, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge was allowed to intervene with other states in a lawsuit challenging a proposed EPA rule to reduce carbon emissions from electric generating plants.

She said in a statement:

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“As Attorney General, I will seek to protect Arkansans against an overreaching federal government that is attempting to implement heavy-handed regulations that go beyond the scope of the law. As I pointed out in my testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Subcommittee on the Interior on February 26, the 111(d) rule from the EPA mandates the standards that Arkansas must achieve, rather than providing guidelines for Arkansas to use in its efforts to reduce carbon pollution. This rule goes beyond the EPA’s authority granted by Congress and seeks to impose a national energy policy that will harm Arkansas’s economy.”

Responded the Sierra Club in Arkansas, through Glen Hooks:

“The proposed Clean Power Plan gives Arkansas the power to write its own plan to reduce power plant pollution, helping improve our air, public health, and economy. It’s a federal plan that gives states maximum flexibility on how to achieve pollution protection goals.

“Unfortunately, one of Attorney General Rutledge’s very first actions was to sue the EPA in an attempt to stop the Clean Power Plan. This action is misguided and does nothing to help Arkansas. Passing the Clean Power Plan will create thousands of clean energy jobs for Arkansans while cleaning up our air and improving health.

Our Arkansas officials should work to improve our air, our health, and our economy—not do the bidding of the dirty coal industry to maintain the status quo.”

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