Montana Attorney General Tim Fox and the Montana Public Service Commission, along with 25 other state attorneys general, co-authored and co-signed a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency objecting to a new rule that they argue is an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court.
“The rule making is called the Clean Energy Incentive Program Design Details or CEIP,” said Fox. “Doesn’t that sound really good? Unfortunately, EPA even admits that the whole reason for promulgating this proposed rule is to implement ‘Clean Power Plant’ which has been stayed.”
Fox says the EPA denied an initial request, but that the Montana Attorney General’s Office will continue to push.
“This is just more of the same I guess from the Federal Government,” Fox said. “They are obstinate and don’t listen. We actually sent a letter to them asking them to hold off on this rule making and they wrote back and said they weren’t going to take us up on that. We will see what happens. If they do promulgate the rule I expect there will be more court action.”
Fox suspects that the EPA will ignore the letter and that could result in more difficulties for Montana coal and power plants.