States Sue White House over Global Warming Plan

WASHINGTON -- More than 20 states and other organizations are suing the Environmental Protection Agency over President Barack Obama's plan to fight global warming.

The president says his plan will help the environment. But critics call it a war on coal, warning it will be bad for many businesses and the economy.

Now they're asking a court to overturn the rule and put it on ice until the litigation plays out.

They say it's just the latest example of the president using his executive authority to bypass Congress, this time using the EPA to force states to transform their electricity grids.

The EPA has given each state a goal to meet by 2030. Some must reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by nearly half. If states don't formulate plans to reach the EPA's goal, the federal government will create one for them.

Luke Popovich works for the National Mining Association, one of the groups filing suit.

"Essentially what this plan does is take away our most affordable sources of generating electricity which is coal and then natural gas," Popovich told CBN News.

Coal generates nearly 40 percent of the nation's power. The president wants to replace it with more renewable fuels, such as wind and solar, which make up about 6 percent of the market.

Changing the nation's power grid will be costly.

"They will claim that this plan will cost you money, even though this plan, the analysis shows, will ultimately save the average American nearly $85 a year on their energy bills," Obama said.

But that's 15 years away. Until then, experts say costs will be passed on to customers, mostly hurting low-income Americans and the elderly living on fixed incomes.

The coal industry also expects to lose more jobs on top of the 40,000 lost over the past three years.

"Virtually no environmental benefit is being achieved by all this economic havoc," Popovich charged.

"I mean it's one thing if we could say, 'Well, we have to pay a substantial price in order to really address global warming, however serious you think it may be,'" he continued. "By the EPA's own numbers this play will have virtually negligible effect on global warming."

That's because China and other developing nations are major polluters.

But expect a fight. Addressing climate change is one of the president's top priorities before he leaves office. He personally promoted his plan on social media during a recent trip to Alaska.

"Behind me is one of the most visited glaciers in Alaska, it is spectacular," Obama said. "This is worth preserving."

But as the holder of the world's largest supply of coal, Popovich says taking it off the table just doesn't make sense.

"When instead we could use the same amount of money that we're going to be forcing taxpayers to pay in higher electricity costs and instead put that money into technology innovation," Popovich said.

"And then, not only use that technology for the resource we have here, keep those jobs and that resource here in the U.S., but use it much more cleanly," he continued.

"And at the same time sell that technology abroad to the big emitting countries like China and India who are going to be using coal whether we like it or not," he said.

The next move belongs to the court.