By Valerie Volcovici and Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty-four states said they filed a petition with a U.S. appeals court on Friday to block the Obama administration's proposal to curb carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, the centerpiece of its high-profile climate change strategy.
West Virginia, Texas, Florida and Ohio were among the states challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan, saying it pushed the limits of the federal Clean Air Act.
"EPA claims to have sweeping power to enact such regulations based on a rarely-used provision of the Clean Air Act but such legal authority simply does not exist," West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said.
The states filed a petition for review and motions to stay, or block, the rule in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, arguing such curbs will have "devastating impacts" on their economies.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said Friday the regulation, which aims to lower emissions from the country's power plants by 2030 to 32 percent below 2005 emission level, will survive the legal challenges.
"We are confident we will again prevail against these challenges and will be able to work with states to successfully implement these first-ever national standards to limit carbon pollution the largest source of carbon emissions in the United States," she said in a statement.
Two former EPA chiefs from Republican administrations, William Reilly and William Ruckelshaus, said in a joint statement that the Clean Power Plan is necessary and hope the courts "will recognize that it is on the right side of history."
It is rare for the D.C. circuit court to grant stay requests.
The court did not block the Obama administration's first wave of climate regulations earlier in his presidency, and it has allowed the Federal Communication Commission's new rules on Internet traffic to proceed. But in December 2011, the court did block an EPA air regulation to limit pollution crossing state lines.
Morissey and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxon said the rule is illegal because it goes beyond regulating emissions directly at the source and since carbon emissions at existing power plants are already regulated under another section of the Clean Air Act.
Under the EPA rule, each state must submit a plan to comply with its emission-reduction target by Sept. 2016 but can also request a two-year extension.