By Devin Henry, The Hill.

Federal environmental regulators have never had a “better relationship” with states than they do now, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said Thursday, one day before a new regulation is expected to attract a bevy of lawsuits from state attorneys general.

“I think EPA has, frankly, never had a better relationship, and more open, with the states, and more respectful of one another,” McCarthy said Thursday at a Center for American Progress event.

The Obama administration will formally publish the Clean Power Plan in the Federal Register on Friday, and more than a dozen states have already promised lawsuits. Several Republican governors are considering not complying with the rule, which requires that states cut their power sector carbon emissions.