Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli stands ready to take more legal action against the federal government if the Environmental Protection Agency announces new fuel economy standards for vehicles Wednesday, he said in Lynchburg on Tuesday.
Cuccinelli has sued the EPA over its finding that greenhouse gases harm people, and if it issues regulations Wednesday that are based on that finding, “We will sue them again,” he told the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Virginia’s Democratic Party renewed its accusations Tuesday that two Cuccinelli lawsuits against the federal government over global warming and health care are wasting the state’s resources “to wage a personal, political fight.”
Cuccinelli replied that he’s taking action to protect Virginia jobs and save the state government billions in probable expenses if federal regulations to control carbon dioxide and boost health care take effect. The cost to Virginia has been a $385 court filing fee, he said.
Cuccinelli spent more than an hour explaining to about 100 chamber members that he was “on the right side” on three high-profile issues: a suit that challenges the EPA over scientific data that was used in its greenhouse-gases finding; another lawsuit that says the federal health-care bill is unconstitutional; and a letter in which he advised colleges that they can’t legally designate sexual orientation as a protected class.
Other than those issues, his 2 ½ months in office “have been pretty boring,” Cuccinelli said, as the audience in Liberty University Law School’s Supreme Court room chuckled.
Cuccinelli also said Tuesday that he expects to help legislators add a property-rights amendment to Virginia’s constitution starting in 2011.
Such an amendment would collide with eminent-domain laws, which have become increasingly controversial as cities have used them to take private property for redevelopment projects in recent years.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement