Last week, reports The Hill, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed a lawsuit against the EPA to challenge draconian ozone regulations issued early last month. Four states are joining Arizona’s challenge to the Obama Administration’s end-of-term regulatory frenzy: Oklahoma, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Arkansas. (The states’ petition for review of the new rule has now been consolidated with a similar challenge by Murray Energy Corporation, filed a day earlier.)
The new EPA rule disclaims any responsibility to consider costs, so the rule could have disastrous effects on states that find it difficult or impossible to achieve the new target levels of ozone. Brnovich argues that for Arizona in particular, compliance with the harsh new rules would be “nearly impossible.”
If you’re interested in following the case in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, you can find it on PACER under State of Arizona, et al. v. EPA, No. 15-1392 and Murray Energy Corporation v. EPA, No. 15-1385. According to the clerk’s order, briefing begins at the end of November and should be complete by mid-December.