Source: NCDENR, 10/23/15

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, announced today that the McCrory administration, along with attorneys general from 22 other states, filed a lawsuit challenging the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan. The unlawful federal plan would radically restructure the way electricity is produced and consumed throughout the country and drastically increase energy costs.

The EPA's federalized power rule will have a severe and disproportionate economic burden on low income families and those who live on a fixed income. Under the Clean Power Plan, the average utility bill in North Carolina is expected to increase by $434 a year by 2020.

"This federal overreach presents a clear choice: do you want Washington D.C or North Carolina to control energy generation in our state?" said DEQ Secretary Donald van der Vaart. "We have shown that North Carolina's leadership, not federal intervention, has resulted in reduced emissions, cleaner air, and affordable energy. This administration remains committed to protecting ratepayers from expensive and unnecessary federal regulations."

For the first time in more than 18 years North Carolina's air quality meets all federal clean air standards and the state has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 25 percent since 2005, all without federal intervention.

"North Carolina believes that this unprecedented federalization of our power sector is illegal," said DEQ General Counsel Sam Hayes, who is representing the state in this matter. "Studies have confirmed that emission reductions under the plan will have no meaningful impact on global warming, yet EPA is still requiring states to immediately overhaul and rewrite laws and regulations that will result in significant rate increases."

Other states who are challenging the rule include West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and the Arizona Corporation Commission.