Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is in a familiar position as she is once again leading a coalition of Republican attorneys general in pushing back against the Obama administration.
Bondi, who chairs the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), and 16 other state attorneys general filed a petition on Tuesday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review a federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) act focusing on emissions from power plants. In June, the EPA ruled that 35 states, including Florida, had to revise State Implementation Plans over emissions. Bondi and her fellow attorneys general insist the EPA rule violates the Clean Air Act which gives states more flexibility on handling air-quality improvement.
“We will not step aside while the EPA, through heavy-handed federal overreach, threatens to upend a system that the EPA has approved multiple times and has provided a consistent, reliable framework to safely provide electricity to millions of Floridians across the state; furthermore, the agency’s action could result in higher utility bills for Florida consumers,” Bondi said on Tuesday after the petition was filed.
“The Clean Air Act establishes a cooperative-federalism approach to regulating the nation’s air quality and dictates that EPA has the primary responsibility to identify air pollutants that pose a threat to public health and to set national air-quality standards; however, the act gives states the primary responsibility to determine how to achieve those standards,” Bondi’s office noted on Tuesday. “For decades, states have ensured compliance with the standards set for power plant SSM through their individual SIPs. The adoption and adherence to Florida’s SIP has helped to tremendously and measurably improve the state’s air quality. The EPA’s final rule illegally requiring the states to change their previously approved SIPs, came after the agency agreed to settle a lawsuit. The EPA’s imprudent rush to settle the matter has led the agency to adopt an illegal final rule that is in conflict with the Clean Air Act and imposes on Florida’s right to determine the most effective strategy for achieving air-quality standards.”
While Bondi has closed the door to running for the open U.S. Senate seat in 2016, she has garnered some buzz as a potential candidate in 2018. Bondi has been active at the national level, leading the coalition of states that unsuccessfully challenged Obama's federal health-care law. At a Federalist Society event at the end of February at Walt Disney World, conservative pundit Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard called the Republican attorneys general the most effective opposition to Obama.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
