Attorney General

When it comes to U.S. environmental laws, individual states almost always blaze the trail for the nation.

They launched the first auto emissions regulations, building efficiency standards and emissions reporting rules. Now, they’re testing cap-and-trade programs, renewable electricity standards and renewable fuel standards, just to name a few.

So, as U.S. senators prepare to write their version of the federal climate and energy bill, five states are speaking out, urging them to step carefully and ensure that Congress preserves the authority of individual states to set even higher standards and to enforce the rules.

The five want a federal climate bill expedited, no question.

“We believe that the climate bill passed by the House, the American Energy and Security Act (ACES), represents a strong foundation upon which the Senate can build,” the attorneys general of California, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey write in a letter to senators.

But the bills and proposals offered right now need work if they're going to succeed.

In addition to preserving state authority, the Senate should remove the House bill’s shackles from the EPA and allow it to regulate CO2 so the nation’s aging power plants aren’t free to pollute the air with impunity, the attorneys general write:

“In the absence of any controls for existing facilities, the bill would allow owners of older, dirtier plants to continue operating (or expand) their plants, free from controls such as improved efficiency or cleaner fuels."

The Senate also needs to get its reduction targets back on track with the science.