Alabama Attorney General praises executive order undoing EPA regulations

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is joining other Republican leaders from across the country in praising President Donald Trump’s action to undo Obama’s harmful Clean Power Plan.

“The so-called Clean Power Plan was an unlawful, job-killing extension of the EPA’s authority under President Obama,” said Attorney General Marshall. “It was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court in a lawsuit filed by the State of Alabama and others, and I am pleased that President Trump has ordered that it be reviewed.”

Alabama has long fought against the Clean Power Plan, which would mandate a 750 million metric ton reduction in CO2 emissions through increased regulations on existing power plants, especially coal-fired plants. According to a report released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last year, it would have cost more than 220,000 jobs across the country.

Trump’s executive action lifts restrictions on domestic coal and onshore oil and gas production, with key provisions taking effect immediately. Further rollback of major regulations under Obama’s Clean Power Plan are pending additional agency review.

In December, prior to Luther Strange’s appointment to U.S. Senate, the then-Attorney General called on President Trump to take action against the Plan.

In a bipartisan letter addressed to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Senate President Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, Strange and the Attorneys General of 23 other states suggested a “four point” strategy that included doing away with the plan on the first day Trump takes office.

“Conservative Attorneys General continue to play an important role in reversing unlawful federal mandates by challenging them in court and working with the incoming Trump administration to stop them at the source,” Attorney General Strange said at the time. “We are committed to working with the new administration and Congress in uprooting unlawful rulemaking which has had an adverse effect on States and our economy.”