ICYMI: Gov. Pence Encourages States to Reject EPA’s Climate Rule

WASHINGTON — Yesterday, the American Energy Alliance held a press conference call with Indiana Governor Mike Pence regarding the EPA’s Climate Rule regulating carbon dioxide from power plants. On the call, Gov. Pence explained how states are well within their rights to not submit a plan to the EPA. Below is some of the media coverage of yesterday’s call:

“Pence encourages states to fight greenhouse gas rules”
By Maureen Groppe
7/9/15

Fighting the federal government over proposed greenhouse gas rules for power plants is worth the legal costs, Gov. Mike Pence said Thursday in a news conference with an industry advocacy group aimed at encouraging more states to follow his lead.

“We do have a choice,” Pence said. “You can refuse to submit a state plan. You can challenge the EPA’s ability to impose a federal plan. There’s nothing illegal about saying ‘no’ on behalf of ratepayers and businesses in your state.”

If enough states do that, the Environmental Protection Agency will be forced to capitulate, said Tom Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance.

“The sheer enormity of having to potentially deal with a dozen or so federal implementation plans would overwhelm the EPA to the point where they would probably have to throw up their hands,” Pyle said.

Pence informed President Barack Obama in a letter last month that he would refuse to comply with the pending rules, unless they were substantially changed.

The rules, which are expected to be finalized this summer, are the cornerstone of the administration’s plan to curb climate change.

If states refuse to comply, the EPA has said, it will impose its own plan. But that would delay implementation, even without the legal challenge Pence says he’s committed to make.

“We think we’ve got a strong opportunity to defend ratepayers, and I think it would be worth the fight,” he said about the cost of litigation.

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“Coal industry has new litmus test for Republican governors”
By James Hohmann and Elise Viebeck
7/10/15

Refusing to implement standards being unveiled next month by the Environmental Protection Agency is the fossil fuel industry’s biggest new ask of Republican governors, especially the four running for president. The Obama administration is putting the finishing touches on far-reaching rules to cut power plant emissions. Recognizing he will not have the votes to override a presidential veto, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told governors in February that they should decline to respond to federal requests for state-issued plans on how they would meet lower emission targets.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican who retains national ambitions despite passing on a 2016 presidential run, has been the most vocal about his plan to ignore federal orders. Pence said Thursday that he will “refuse to comply” unless a previously issued draft is massively watered down. “The best way for this rule to be improved is for it to be withdrawn completely,” he told reporters on a 40-minute conference call, which was organized by a leading energy industry association. “No state is obligated to adopt the president’s climate change agenda as their own … We’ve drawn a line in the sand and made it clear that the state of Indiana will not comply … We’ll avail ourselves of all legal remedies.”
The American Energy Alliance is pushing governors to “embrace a Just-Say-No approach,” President Tom Pyle said yesterday after a friendly Q&A with Pence. He praised Texas’ Greg Abbott, Oklahoma’s Mary Fallin, Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker — all Republicans — for threatening to defy the feds.

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“Ind. governor sees mercury ruling fueling ‘just say no’ push”
By Jean Chemnick
7/9/15

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) said today that states weighing a “just say no” stance on U.S. EPA’s Clean Power Plan should take heart from last week’s Supreme Court ruling on the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).

One of four state governors who have said they won’t implement EPA’s carbon rule for power plants, Pence said in an American Energy Alliance call today the ruling shows the high court will be an ally against economically harmful environmental mandates if governors allow judicial review to proceed.

“There is a majority on the court that recognizes the importance of some common-sense cost-benefit analyses by the EPA in the rulemaking process,” Pence said. “We think we’ve got a strong opportunity here to defend ratepayers, and I think it’s worth the fight.”

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