DENVER – Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office on Tuesday defended actions this week that put the Democratic governor at odds with the state’s Republican attorney general over federal standards for carbon-dioxide pollution.
Close advisers to the governor believe Cynthia Coffman overstepped her authority last week in joining a multistate lawsuit seeking to block the new rule. They also believe the attorney general has relied too heavily on lawsuits since being elected last year.
The Environmental Protection Agency rule calls for a reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions by 28 percent in Colorado and 32 percent nationally by 2030. The state is charged with developing a specific plan for Colorado.
On Monday, Hickenlooper announced that he would seek guidance from the Colorado Supreme Court about whether Coffman is within her authority to join 23 other states in the lawsuit.
“We think the law is clear that she doesn’t have this authority,” Doug Friednash, Hickenlooper’s chief of staff, told The Durango Herald. “That authority clearly is within the governor’s discretion.”
Coffman’s office strongly disagrees, suggesting that the attorney general serves as a check and balance in state government, which is why the attorney general is elected by the people.
“The governor’s action is an expression of his frustration with the legal challenges I have filed against the federal government,” Coffman said in a statement. “I am pursuing those challenges because it is my responsibility as the independently elected attorney general to serve as a check against the abusive, unlawful exercise of federal power over the lives of Colorado’s citizens.”
Coffman earlier this year joined a lawsuit against the EPA for a new rule expanding federal authority over small bodies of water. Likewise, she joined a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed rules governing hydraulic fracturing on federal lands.
“How many more lawsuits does this attorney general have in mind?” asked Alan Salazar, the governor’s chief strategist. “Do we have to anticipate what that looks like, and will future governors have to deal with it?”
Hickenlooper told reporters last week that he is tired of lawsuits.
“More lawsuits. More lawsuits,” he quipped. “Lawsuits should be a last resort.”
There have been clear examples in the past of Colorado attorneys general suing out of step with the interests of the governor’s office, including lawsuits to protect the state’s ban on gay marriage and to overturn the Affordable Care Act.
But the governor’s office said the current lawsuit is unique, as it puts state offices in direct conflict with each other. There are also concerns about diminishing the governor’s attorney-client relationship with the attorney general.
“The attorney general is at the same time advising some of our state agencies about the meaning of the new Clean Power rule, about what their authority is under the Clean Power rule, about how to implement the new Clean Power rule, and at the same time, she is challenging the validity of those rules,” said Jacki Cooper Melmed, Hickenlooper’s chief legal counsel.
Coffman, however, contends it is her obligation to sue.
“Coloradans ... elected each of us to serve different roles within our system of checks and balances,” Coffman said. “If the governor is arguing that the attorney general cannot take legal action in the best interest of the state without his express permission, he is departing from past examples during his own tenure and decisions of the Colorado Supreme Court.”
