Fifteen state attorneys general filed a court petition in Washington to block the Environmental Protection Agency's new rules to curb carbon emissions from power plants until courts have weighed in on whether they are legal.

States from Alabama to West Virginia that oppose the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan filed for the stay in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and asked for a ruling by Sept. 8, one year before states need to submit compliance plans to the EPA.

"This rule is the most far-reaching energy regulation in the nation's history, and the EPA simply does not have the legal authority to carry it out," West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said.

The Obama administration unveiled the final version of the Clean Power Plan on Aug. 3.