The environmental department today announced that the McCrory Administration has joined 15 other states in challenging the Obama administration’s latest regulation targeting oil and gas production. The oil and gas rule is the latest in a string of federal regulations aimed at driving up the cost of domestic energy.
“By bringing this civil action, the McCrory administration aims to stop in its tracks this unlawful and unnecessary federal overreach,” said Sam Hayes, general counsel for the state environmental agency. “Just like the federal power plan, this latest EPA rule violates the law and ignores state’s efforts to reduce emissions.”
The oil and gas rule, like the federal power plan, will provide no environmental benefit and would needlessly drive up energy costs. This will have an adverse impact on low-income communities and will threaten economic development. Over the last ten years, the United States has become the world’s leading producer of oil and gas resulting in lower prices for home heating and gasoline.
For the first time in more than 18 years, North Carolina's air quality meets all federal clean air standards and the state has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 25 percent since 2005, all without federal intervention. The federal oil and gas rule will threaten these recent successes in North Carolina.
North Carolina, without its attorney general, signed onto the lawsuit with West Virginia, Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin, along with the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. Texas and North Dakota filed a similar challenge last week.