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17 States Ask Court To Review EPA Air Quality Rules

Navajo Generating Station about 4 miles east of Page, Arizona; viewed northwest from SR 98.
Wikimedia Commons
Navajo Generating Station about 4 miles east of Page, Arizona; viewed northwest from SR 98.

Seventeen states, including Florida, are asking a federal judge to review a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency move to force more cuts in carbon emissions from power plants.

The petition, filed Tuesday in a federal appeals court in Washington, charges the EPA with illegally invalidating the states' air quality protection plans.

EPA sets national air standards and identifies pollutants that pose public health dangers. States must implement plans to comply with these standards.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi called EPA's invalidation of state air quality plans a "heavy-handed federal overreach" that threatens to disrupt the state's energy system and raise rates.

Other states to join the suit include: Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio and North Carolina.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not return a call seeking comment on the petition.

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