John Siciliano reports for the Washington Examiner about one critic of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan whose politics might surprise you.
A leading Democrat in the race for Missouri governor has come out as a staunch opponent of the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of President Obama’s climate change agenda.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is the state’s shoo-in for the Democratic nomination in the right-leaning “Show Me” state. But that doesn’t make him an automatic fan of the Obama administration’s emissions cuts for power plants.
Koster told a group of utilities that he plans to add Missouri to the growing list of states seeking to oppose the Clean Power Plan in federal court at the end of the month, when the rule is expected to be published in the Federal Register. Observers say he had been mulling joining the lawsuit for weeks.
He said the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Clean Power rule effectively eliminates Missouri’s competitive advantage as a low energy-cost state.” The state has faced a number of challenges from EPA regulations in the past and has been a key litigant in challenging contentious cross-state air pollution rules and an expensive rule on mercury and acid gases that caused power plants to close.
