Attorney General Laxalt Files Brief in Clean Power Plan Case Highlighting Federal Overreach Concerns and Impact on Consumers


February 24, 2016

Carson City, NV – Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt announced the filing of a friend-of-the-court brief in a multistate challenge to the EPA’s Clean Power Plan currently pending in the D.C. federal Court of Appeals. AG Laxalt filed this brief to highlight the federal agency’s overreach and disregard for the rule of law associated with the Plan.

    Nevada’s brief explains how, under the Clean Air Act, individual states have primary decision-making authority to establish pollution emission standards for already-existing power plants. The EPA’s sweeping Clean Power Plan rule, however, disregards the text of the Act in this and other ways, exceeding the federal agency’s statutory authority. The new rule will broadly affect energy consumers across the nation, raising average annual electricity rates by up to 14%, and increasing costs to U.S. consumers by up to $79 billion, according to some experts’ estimates.

      “We are repeatedly seeing more federal regulation that is less tied to the actual text of the laws that federal agencies claim is the basis for their rules,” said Laxalt. “With the Plan’s sweeping impact on our nation’s economy and costs estimated to be in the billions, it is important for Nevadans to continue to push back on unaccountable federal agencies that impose their own rules beyond the text of the laws passed by Congress.”

        The state of Nevada filed the amicus brief jointly with Consumers’ Research, a national consumer advocacy organization, to emphasize the impact of the EPA’s illegal rule on consumers. To view the filed brief and motion, click here.

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