U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) responded candidly to an Environmental Protection Agency power plant carbon ruling, published in the Federal Register today, which begins a three-month window for opposing parties to file lawsuits.
Gosar’s statement cut no corners as he sharply criticized the EPA, in solidarity with two dozen states nationwide.
“Administrator McCarthy is living in Fantasy Land if she actually believes that the ‘EPA has never had a better and more open relationship with the states,’" Gosar stated. “When more than two dozen states launch legal challenges in less than 24 hours in response to a proposed new regulation, it’s safe to say that the feeling is not mutual. This overreaching new rule illegally strips away the authority of individual states to determine their own energy policies.”
States and/or private companies have 60 days from the EPA’s published announcement to file lawsuits. In a letter to Gosar dated June 23, the Sulphur Springs Valley Cooperative declared that the proposed carbon rule would result in wholesale electric costs for distribution cooperative customers rising to 37.6 percent over the current market rate; and in July, Patrick Ledger, CEO of the Arizona Generation and Transmission Cooperatives, stated that “the people throughout rural Arizona that we serve will be screwed more than anybody else in the country.”
Gosar said that by forcing the "fundamentally flawed mandate down the throats of energy providers and consumers, the president is threatening to extinguish millions of good paying jobs, to cause energy prices to skyrocket and to further impoverish American families already struggling to make ends meet."
The congressman unequivocally stated that Congress should dictate our country’s environmental policies--not “EPA bureaucrats.” Reminding constituents and legislators that federal judges have already rejected numerous environmental proposals in this administration, Gosar said, “I have no doubt that the power plant carbon regulations will suffer the same fate.”