Schimel suing over ozone rules

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Wisconsin justice officials announced Monday that they have joined other states in a challenge of federal ozone limits that opponents contend will discourage employers from moving to places where the new standards fall most heavily on businesses.

In Murray Energy Corp. v. the Environmental Protection Agency, states and industries are challenging new ozone standards handed down by federal officials on Oct. 26. The new 8-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard sets a 70-parts-per-billion cap for ozone.

In a news release, Wisconsin’s Department of Justice argued that the new restrictions will force manufacturers and power producers to pay dearly for the pollution-control equipment needed to bring the state into compliance. Companies will be disinclined to move to places where such costs are particularly high.

State officials argued that ozone often comes from sources that are beyond the control of anyone living in the U.S. Some of it is borne across international borders by wind. Ozone is also a byproduct of natural events such as lightning and wildfires, according to the release.

“Wisconsin is expected to take impossible measures, like controlling the weather, under the new Ozone NAAQS,” Attorney General Brad Schimel said in the official statement. “We will not tolerate another instance of the EPA’s unconstitutional abuse of power as it continues to hammer job makers in our state with costly regulation.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has until July 22 to file a reply to the challenge put forward by Wisconsin and other states.

Schimel has proved willing in the past to contest presidential executive orders.

In April, for instance, Wisconsin joined 14 other states in a lawsuit challenging preliminary rules that would have forced them to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by certain percentages by 2030. A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., threw the lawsuit out in June, finding that the court lacked authority to review the rule since hadn’t yet been made final.

Schimel is now weighing a challenge of a new version of the rules, which now call for Wisconsin to reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2024 and by 41 percent by 2030. Follow @TDR_WLJDan