A new, Republican-led joint resolution would declare Kentucky “a sanctuary state” from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations on fossil fuel-fired power plants, directing the state’s Energy and Environment Cabinet to defy federal air pollution rules.
For Kentucky’s coal and natural gas power plants, air quality standards “shall not be subject to federal regulation,” the resolution says. It would also prohibit state agencies from collecting penalties “for any violations of federal requirements” at fossil fuel-fired power plants — which generate a vast majority of Kentucky’s energy.
In the resolution, introduced in late February, House Republican lawmakers are “asking the cabinet to violate federal law,” said Randy Strobo, an environmental lawyer who works with the Kentucky Conservation Committee in Frankfort.
... Resolutions don’t change or add to the Kentucky Revised Statutes, the state's set of laws. But they do carry the force of law, and by directing the state’s Energy and Environment Cabinet to defy federal air pollution laws, lawmakers could put the agency in a legal quagmire, experts said.
Read the rest at the Courier-Journal.
