In this July 29, 2015, file photo, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during a hearing in Austin, Texas. Paxton is closer to standing trial on criminal fraud charges after the state’s highest appeals court refused to consider dismissing his felony indictments. The decision Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016, exhausts the Republican’s efforts to end the case before trial. Paxton is accused of misleading wealthy investors he personally recruited for a high-tech startup in 2011, four years before becoming Texas’ top prosecutor. He has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.
AUSTIN — Attorney General Ken Paxton took one last swipe at the Obama administration Tuesday, joining a throng of states suing the federal government for alleged overreach into the coal industry.Texas joined 12 states in a lawsuit seeking a review and injunction of the “Stream Protection Rule” which the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation and Enforcement describes as a method to protect streams and wildlife.
The suit, Paxton’s 21st against the Obama administration, accused the federal agency of adopting a “one-size-fits-all rule” which affects coal mining without input from states and imposes on state’s sovereign rights.
“Yet, again, we must fight federal overreach,” Paxton said in a press release Tuesday. “This rule tramples states’ retention of sovereign authority under the 10th Amendment and seeks to destroy an entire industry, displacing hardworking men and women and setting a precedent to disregard states’ own understanding of major industries within their borders.”
States joined in the suit include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. All but two states are represented by a Republican attorney general.
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