Exclusive: Chris Christie Challenges Obama’s EPA Climate Change Rules

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is challenging President Obama’s draconian new emissions regulations on power plants, according to a letter released by his office.

In the letter to the EPA Secretary Gina McCarthy, the New Jersey EPA commissioner Bob Martin argues that the new regulations are “fundamentally flawed” and “uncommonly cumbersome, difficult and costly to implement” and notifies the state’s intention to file a stay of the rule.

“The Clean Power Plan is yet another example of the Obama Administration inappropriately reaching far beyond its legal authority to implement more onerous and more burdensome regulations on businesses and state governments alike,” said Christie in a statement provided to Breitbart News. “This is a fundamentally flawed plan that threatens the progress we’ve already made in developing clean and renewable energy in New Jersey without the heavy-handed overreach of Washington.”

New Jersey now joins fifteen states that have already filed an emergency stay of the regulations with the U.S. Court of Appeals. In 2014, New Jersey already signaled their concerns to the EPA about the rule for the same reasons.

New Jersey is the first clean energy state, however, to join the coalition, since it already has the fifth-lowest carbon emission rates in the country, according to Christie’s office.

“Consistent with our 2011 Energy Master Plan, New Jersey has already promoted cleaner and more efficient energy,” the letter reads. “Adding this cumbersome and poorly designed federal regulation is counter-productive and unfair to the people of New Jersey.”

On the presidential campaign trail, Christie has signaled his opposition to the EPA’s rule on power plants because of it’s impact on the economy.

In 2011, Christie also withdrew the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative because of it’s harmful effect on the economy.

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