Texas, 11 Other States Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Hear the States’ Legal Challenge to the EPA’s Flawed Greenhouse Gas Regulations

AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Attorneys General from 11 other states on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the legality of the Obama Administration’s unprecedented and overreaching greenhouse gas environmental regulatory scheme. In a petition for writ of certiorari filed Friday, the States explain that the EPA violated the U.S. Constitution as well as the federal Clean Air Act by concocting its greenhouse gas regulations without Congressional authorization. The States explain that the EPA ignored Congress’ law-making role by re-writing federal laws through administrative rule-making. The States urge the Supreme Court to overturn the Obama Administration’s “attempts to unilaterally implement policies in the absence of congressionally delegated authority” and to “rein in a usurpatious agency and remind the President and his subordinates that they cannot rule by executive decree.”

"Since Day One of the Obama Administration, the EPA has issued a barrage of overreaching and illegal regulations,” Attorney General Abbott said. “In doing so, the EPA has not only ignored the devastating economic impacts of their regulations, but also ignored the laws of our land. The EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations were unlawfully created out of whole cloth and are a massive burden on states and businesses. As Texas has proven in other lawsuits against the EPA, this is a runaway federal agency that must be reined in. In the last 13 months alone, federal courts have ruled against the EPA and in favor of Texas in three separate lawsuits.”

The 12-state coalition includes Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and South Dakota. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is also a petitioner. 

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