Governor Mead’s Petitions Challenge Rules On Greenhouse Gases

The following is a release from the Office of Governor Mead.

Governor Matt Mead through the Wyoming Attorney General filed three petitions in the Tenth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals this week. The petitions challenge rules established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on greenhouse gases. Specifically, Governor Mead says it is important for Wyoming to guard its right to control permitting of air quality.

“These rules strip our authority and primacy,” Governor Matt Mead says. “The State of Wyoming had the primary role in regulating air quality permitting and the EPA used unreasonable deadlines to take that away.”

The first rule published in the Federal Register on December 13, 2010 required Wyoming to establish a plan for permitting new facilities which emit greenhouse gases. Traditionally, states have three years to create these types of programs. In this case the EPA gave Wyoming nine days.

The EPA claimed Wyoming had a full year, but that position ignored the fact that the EPA would have banned construction of new facilities that emit greenhouse gases if Wyoming had taken a year to develop its program.

Wyoming is challenging this action and companion actions of the EPA in the suits filed this week.

“I have said from the beginning that I will stand up to federal rules that are overreaching and this is another example of federal rulemaking that goes too far. This will stifle our economy, take away our state’s primacy, and simply cannot be left unchallenged,” Governor Mead says.