WASHINGTON (AP) — A coalition of 18 states is seeking to defend President Barack Obama’s plan to slow climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
They are opposing lawsuits filed last month against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by 25 mostly Republican states and allied industry groups. Those states, led by Texas and West Virginia, deride the carbon-cutting Clean Power Plan as an “unlawful power grab by Washington bureaucrats” that will kill coal-mining jobs and drive up electricity costs.
The group that filed a joint motion to intervene on Wednesday in favor of Obama’s plan largely includes states, big cities and urban counties led by Democrats. They include New York, California, Massachusetts and Virginia.
The cases will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.