U.S. states hit back at EPA chief over climate rule guidance

Democratic state officials blasted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday for telling governors in what they describe as a “legally incorrect” letter in March that they do not need to comply with a major climate change regulation. Fourteen Democratic attorneys general and officials from six cities and counties said the guidance that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt sent to states on March 30 was misleading because the Clean Power Plan enacted under former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, remains on the books despite the Republican Trump administration’s plans to unravel it.The Clean Power Plan was aimed at curbing carbon emissions from power plants. It never took effect because the Supreme Court put it on hold in February 2016.The state officials said the regulation “remains the law of the land” even if it is currently on hold and that Pruitt’s “unsolicited legal advice” to governors was “premature and legally incorrect.” They called for Pruitt to retract his letter.