What if states just say ‘no’ to Obama's climate rule?

◼ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is counseling states to defy a key pillar of President Obama’s climate change initiative. - The Hill

ut while it may be politically attractive for some states to heed the call to just say “no,” to the Environmental Protection Agency’s landmark limits on power plant emissions, experts say doing so could bring unwanted consequences.

McConnell, a Republican from coal-rich Kentucky, reasoned in a column in the Lexington, Ky., Herald-Leader that states’ refusal to comply with the contentious rule could be a powerful display of protest against an administration he accuses of overreach. At the same time, he argues, states could avoid expensive impacts of a regulation that he thinks is doomed by either Congress or the federal courts.

“Don't be complicit in the administration's attack on the middle class,” he warned states

The advice drew swift rebuke from McConnell’s political rivals, who called it unprecedented and misguided.

“I can’t recall a majority leader calling on states to disobey the law — and I’ve been here almost 24 years,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement, referring to the Clean Air Act.

Further, experts and supporters of the regulation contend, refusing to write a state plan would invite the EPA to impose its own system for reducing emissions, denying state officials the ability to craft rules in a way that best fits the state’s unique circumstances.... KEEP READING