Setting Stage for Major Climate Battle, Dem AGs Put Trump on Alert

If President-elect Donald Trump goes ahead with his plan to destroy U.S. climate regulations, he’s going to face a whole heap of trouble, a coalition of Democratic attorneys general is warning the incoming president.

In a letter (pdf) dated Wednesday, AGs from 13 states and five additional localities advised Trump against plans to renege on President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), saying that such a course of action “would assuredly lead to more litigation.”

The warning is in response to a letter (pdf) sent earlier this month by a number of Republican AGs to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker Paul Ryan which declared the CPP “unlawful,” and encouraged the GOP lawmakers to issue an executive order “on day one” that would withdraw the rule “and prevent adoption of a similar rule in the future.” 

However, “history and legal precedent strongly suggest that such an action would not stand up in court,” the Democratic AGs argue, adding that they “would vigorously oppose in court any attempt to remand the Clean Power Plan.”

“If the challengers are so confident in their oft-repeated claim that the Clean Power Plan is ‘unlawful,’ why not let the court decide the claims that they themselves brought?” they ask. The CPP is currently being weighed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

These “legal chess moves,” The Washington Post‘s Chris Mooney wrote on Thursday, reflect “two views of how vulnerable this major regulation is to reversal under Trump—and sets the stage for one of the biggest, and perhaps longest running, environmental battles of his administration.”