(task) Fighting Obama’s Climate Plan, but Quietly Preparing to Comply - The New York Times

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> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/us/obama-clean-power-plan.html?mabReward=A6&moduleDetail=recommendations-0&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&region=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&src=recg&pgtype=article <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/us/obama-clean-power-plan.html?mabReward=A6&moduleDetail=recommendations-0&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&region=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&src=recg&pgtype=article>
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> Fighting Obama’s Climate Plan, but Quietly Preparing to Comply
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> Gov. Matt Mead of Wyoming has fiercely opposed President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and his state is one of 27 that are suing to block it. Nick Cote for The New York Times
> CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Matt Mead, the governor of Wyoming, the nation’s leading coal-producing state <https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=69&t=2>, fiercely opposes President Obama <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per>’s climate change <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> regulations, which could shutter hundreds of coal plants and deeply wound his state, one of 27 that are suing to block the plan.
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> Nevertheless, Mr. Mead, a Republican, has ordered his top environmental officials to prepare to comply with the president’s effort, known as the Clean Power Plan — to prepare for a future in which Mr. Obama’s climate change rules prevail and the country’s coal market is nearly frozen. Wyoming is one of at least 20 states that are moving forward with efforts to comply with the rules or to analyze alternative plans. Several of these states are also suing to stop the rules, according to experts who track state climate change policy.
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> “Obviously we’re suing and going to fight,” Mr. Mead, a former United States attorney for Wyoming, said in an interview in his office here. “But from my court experience, I know you have to prepare not to win.”
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> Mr. Obama’s ambitious climate change plan <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/us/politics/5-questions-about-obamas-climate-change-plan.html> is in legal limbo. T <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/10/us/politics/supreme-court-blocks-obama-epa-coal-emissions-regulations.html>he Supreme Court has <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/10/us/politics/supreme-court-blocks-obama-epa-coal-emissions-regulations.html>ordered <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/10/us/politics/supreme-court-blocks-obama-epa-coal-emissions-regulations.html> the Environmental Protection Agency <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/environmental_protection_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org> to halt the plan until after the states’ lawsuit is resolved. The case will go before a federal court in September, but it is widely expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court and may not be decided until 2018.
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> Republicans in Congress and their party’s presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, have vowed to scrap the climate change rules. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, has urged governors to refuse to comply, and Republican governors in some states, including Indiana, New Jersey and Wisconsin, have issued “pencils down” orders to state regulators to stop work on the Clean Power Plan.
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> Continue reading the main story
> But in other states, governors, including some Republicans, and many environmental officials say that because the plan is so sweeping and ambitious, it would be imprudent to ignore it. The climate plan would force states to fundamentally transform their electricity systems, shutting down hundreds of power plants that run on fossil fuels and building new ones powered by the wind, the sun and other low-carbon sources, along with creating a need for hundreds of miles of new transmission lines.
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> Governors like Mr. Mead and state-level environment officials are making a political calculation: I <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/us/politics/hillary-clintons-ambitious-climate-change-plan-avoids-carbon-tax.html>f Hillary Clinton is elected president <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/us/politics/hillary-clintons-ambitious-climate-change-plan-avoids-carbon-tax.html> and appoints a new Supreme Court justice, Mr. Obama’s climate plan will probably survive.