Dive Brief:

• Members of a conservative group have sued the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) over its “cap and trade” regulations for carbon dioxide emissions.
• The carbon emissions limits are unconstitutional because they were approved without a three-fifths majority of the Delaware General Assembly, according to the suit. The limits will drive up power prices, the suit said.
• The DNREC contends that the law allowing Delaware to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) allows the agency to adjust the state's carbon emissions caps for large power plants.

Dive Insight:

“RGGI has been recognized as the most cost-effective way of achieving emissions reductions, and will likely serve as one of the models for the new [national] greenhouse gas rule for power plants,” DNREC Secretary Collin O’Mara said.

With the Environmental Protection Agency poised to issue draft rules in June aimed at cutting carbon emissions from power plants, the suit in Delaware is an early sign that the debate over federal standards will likely end up in court.