Texas Asks Court To Halt Drastic Regional Haze Regulations

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced the state has requested a stay preventing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from imposing draconian new regulations until after a Texas lawsuit challenging the new rules is decided in court. Texas filed suit against the EPA in February after it rejected Texas’ 7-year-old proposed revision to its State Implementation Plan (SIP) for reducing regional haze.

“The EPA admits this plan would cost billions, with no perceptible improvement in air quality,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Much like its like-minded Clean Power Plan, this is a case of the EPA attempting to restructure the national electric grid, without the authority to do so.”

In January, the EPA rejected the state’s plan in favor of a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) that would force electricity producers to enact expensive changes, and – by effectively closing some power plants prematurely – could cause the Texas grid to become less reliable.

The Regional Haze rule regards the public’s ability to clearly see sights at U.S. National Parks, including Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks. Under the FIP, power generators would have to install costly, unnecessary upgrades to become compliant. This could both make electricity more expensive, and could result in fewer plants at a time when Texas needs more capacity, not less.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Fifth Circuit. To view the Stay Request filed with the Fifth Circuit, please visit:https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/files/epress/files/2016/regional_haze.pdf.