A group of 24 states and Murray Energy, a coal mining company, filed lawsuits October 23 to challenge a piece of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) climate change rule for power plants.

Litigants claim the EPA went beyond the authority Congress intended to give it. The litigants accuse the EPA of going beyond the authority Congress gave it by ordering a transformation of states’ electricity generation, moving away from fossil fuels like coal and toward lower-carbon sources.

They are asking the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to overturn the rule. They also want the court to immediately stop its implementation while the litigation works its way through the courts. The news was reported by The Hill.

The climate rule, dubbed the Clean Power Plan, seeks a 32% cut in the power sector’s carbon emissions by 2030, compared with 2005 levels. Each state has been assigned a specific emissions goal based on its unique circumstances, with flexibility in how the goals are met. (Read "EPA's Clean Power Plan: How It Will Affect You.")

States involved in the litigation include West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Arizona and North Carolina. The attorneys general of 15 other states, along with the District of Columbia and New York City, are planning to intervene in the lawsuit to support the EPA.

The Clean Power Plan is available here. The rule for new, modified and reconstructed power plants is here. And the proposed federal implementation plan, to be finalized in 2016, is available here.