House GOP asks EPA why it's implementing blocked climate rules

Top Republicans on a House committee want Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy to tell them why her agency seems to be implementing the Clean Power Plan although the Supreme Court has blocked it. In a letter to McCarthy Friday, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Republican Reps. Ed Whitfield and Tim Murphy, of Kentucky and Pennsylvania, respectively, questioned why the EPA sent the proposed Clean Energy Incentive Program to the Office of Management and Budget for review. The Clean Energy Incentive Program is part of the Clean Power Plan, which was blocked by the Supreme Court pending a legal challenge. The program allows the EPA to make allowances to states to reward them for investing in wind and solar energy projects. The EPA also is moving forward with some compliance deadlines, despite the stay. The Supreme Court blocked the Obama administration's regulations on new and existing power plants while a lawsuit regarding the case is heard in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Thirty states and a number of interest groups and companies are suing the EPA to block the rule...more