Florida Joins Lawsuit Against EPA's Pending Emissions Rule

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that her office joined a lawsuit Friday with Nebraska and five other states to challenge a federal air pollution rule she said could cost residents and utility companies millions of dollars.

Once again the EPA has imposed costly regulations on Florida based on a flawed process and without first working cooperatively with our state, Bondi said. "We will continue to protect Florida consumers and businesses from unnecessary and costly federal regulation.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

According to a release from the state attorneys office, Floridas concerns with the rule include: the failure to allow an adequate opportunity to remedy emission activity independently, the use of questionable methodologies and modeling in analyzing the impact on other states, and the disproportionate required reduction in emissions now being placed on Florida.

The federal cross-state air pollution rule, which requires power producers to retrofit coal plants to control 1 percent of their current emissions, goes into place Jan. 1, 2012.