INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WOWO): While the nation waits to see if the Clean Power Plan will survive court challenges, wildlife advocates say there’s no reason for states not to start complying with what it’s trying to do.

The U.S. Supreme Court put the brakes on the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to cut carbon emissions, so states are, at least temporarily, spared from having to spell out how they’ll do that. Jim Murphy, senior counsel at the National Wildlife Federation, said that states such as Indiana need to do it anyway, as critical steps toward protecting air, water and animal species.

“Everything states do to reduce their emissions right now, and every step they take, will be helpful,” he said, “regardless of what happens in the legal process.”

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has called the Supreme Court’s stay a win, saying Hoosiers know coal is about jobs and low-cost energy. Indiana is one of the states that filed the lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan.