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Colorado to join Clean Power Plan lawsuit against EPA, says AG Coffman

A welcome development–Attorney General Cynthia Coffman says joining a lawsuit “where we need to be” when it comes to Colorado and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, finalized earlier this month:

Colorado has joined a growing list of states that will sue the Environmental Protection Agency in an attempt to stop the implementation of President Obama’s controversial Clean Power Plan.

Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said the lawsuit, challenging the EPA’s authority, represents “crucial litigation” against the measure first proposed last year. More than 20 states are expected to be a part of the filing.

“We have been looking at (the plan) and evaluating whether or not there is such an impact on Colorado that we needed to put our name on a lawsuit ,” Coffman, a Republican, said in an interview Friday with The Denver Post. “… We just determined this week that is exactly where we need to be.”

This would be the second lawsuit joined by the state of Colorado. A judge earlier this week blocked the EPA from moving forward in 13 states, including Colorado, on the agency’s Waters of the United States rule.

EPA overreach and drastically elevated electricity prices form the basis of concern, accompanied by legal questions over the agency’s legal authority to steer a state’s electricity portfolio:

“If you make a change like the one we will see if this rule is implemented, I think it has the potential to cost jobs,” Coffman said. “I think it will impact the rates that we pay for our electricity. And I think it impacts the rights of our state government to make these decisions about how electricity is delivered.”

The Colorado Mining Association, an industry association with more than 1,000 members, commends Coffman for challenging the EPA’s regulations.

“By joining this lawsuit, General Coffman seeks to protect Colorado consumers from skyrocketing electricity prices as well as increased costs for all goods and services that are produced using electricity,” the association said in a Saturday news release.”The EPA regulations are legally flawed, will cost Colorado jobs and threaten the reliability of the electrical grid,” the association said in a Saturday news release.