DENVER — Governors and attorneys general are unified in most of the 24 states challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, but not in Colorado.
Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, objected last week when Republican Cynthia Coffman signed on to the lawsuit without his approval. He told The Denver Post that he should have the “final say.”
Ms. Coffman, meanwhile, insists that she has the authority to act independently as an elected official.
“If, as the Governor asserts, only he can determine when Colorado files or joins a lawsuit, he can prevent important legal questions from being put before our courts simply because he wishes to avoid conflict with this Administration,” Ms. Coffman said in a Friday statement.
Such skirmishes are rare, given that the governor and attorney general are both Republicans in most of the two dozen states that have joined the lawsuit. Not purple-state Colorado, where Mr. Hickenlooper has asked the state Supreme Court to rule on the legality of Ms. Coffman’s filing.
Another exception is Montana, where Attorney General Tim Fox, a Republican, announced that he would join the lawsuit in a press conference alongside Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines but not Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock.
Although Mr. Bullock has not commented directly on the attorney general’s move, he has made it clear that he is not a fan of the Clean Power Plan, which requires severe reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from coal- and natural-gas-fired plants in an effort to combat climate change.
Opponents of the plan say it will force the closure of existing coal-fired plants, resulting in job losses and higher electricity prices with no discernible effect on global warming. At a House committee hearing in July, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy estimated the impact on global temperatures would be about 1/100th of a degree Celsius.
Mr. Bullock released a statement defending the state’s plan for reducing emissions and saying that “it was frustrating when the Obama administration moved the goalpost on us in the final rule,” but that he wants Montana to stay involved in the process rather than deferring to the EPA.
“Ultimately, though, Montana faces a choice: we can write our own plan or the federal government will write it for us,” Mr. Bullock said. “I want to ensure that Montana remains in the driver’s seat on our energy and environmental policy, and am going to ask Montanans to roll up their sleeves and work to address this challenge.”
Mr. Hickenlooper sounded the same theme in his objections to Colorado’s involvement in the lawsuit, saying it would “create uncertainty for the state and undermine stakeholders’ ability to plan for and invest in cost-effective compliance strategies.”
“Colorado has already made great progress in clean air and clean jobs and worked extensively with the EPA to ensure we have the time and flexibility we need,” Mr. Hickenlooper said in a statement shortly after the Oct. 23 filing of the 24-state lawsuit.
Backing him up is former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who served as Colorado attorney general before he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He argued that Ms. Coffman should act as the attorney for the executive branch unless the governor does something “clearly unlawful.”
“Here no such argument can be made against the Governor Hickenlooper’s position concerning the Clean Power Rule,” Mr. Salazar said in a Friday statement on the governor’s website. “Hence, in my view Attorney General Coffman’s actions exceed her authority as Attorney General.”
That was not the position that Mr. Salazar, a Democrat, took when he served as attorney general under Republican Gov. Bill Owens, said Coffman spokesman Roger Hudson, pointing to a 2003 policy statement by Mr. Salazar.
Others point out that Republican John Suthers, as Colorado’s previous attorney general, joined lawsuits against Obamacare and same-sex marriage without Mr. Hickenlooper’s support.
“If the Governor is arguing that the Attorney General cannot take legal action in the best interest of the State without his express permission, he is departing from past examples during his own tenure and decisions of the Colorado Supreme Court,” Ms. Coffman said.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.