New York Times: Perhaps half of the states in the US are joining major business groups in a legal battle in response to President Obama's climate change regulations, which are being officially published today. The Environmental Protection Agency rules are designed to cut carbon emissions from power plants and other highly polluting industries. The legal challenges are expected to contend that the rules are an illegal interpretation of the 1970 Clean Air Act. However, most of the states planning lawsuits are also expected to be preparing strategies for complying with the rules. Each state is being assigned a target for reducing its carbon emissions but is allowed to determine for itself the method for achieving that reduction. That will allow states to choose between replacing coal plants with wind and solar plants and enacting cap-and-trade systems to buy and sell pollution credits.
