Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli will continue to challenge what he calls the “utterly destructive” and “invasive, oppressive” policies of an overstepping federal government.

“States created the federal government, not the other way around,” Cuccinelli said to applause this morning at a Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast event.

About 75 people, mostly business and elected leaders, came to the Fredericksburg Country Club today for the Republican attorney general’s 40-minute address.

Cuccinelli has been aggressively challenging the policies of the Obama administration since being sworn in as the state’s attorney general in January.

He compared the administration to the British during the Revolutionary period and said it’s up to the states to challenge federal laws that “trample” the U.S. Constitution and impose crippling regulations on businesses. He said the lawsuits he’s filed are “exactly what the founders intended.”

Cuccinelli focused his remarks on legal challenges his office has filed against the administration’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and overhaul the healthcare system.

Cuccinelli said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gases to protect the public’s health are based on faulty data. He said the regulation could have crippling effects on the economy, particularly utilities and agriculture. He argued that free markets are the most effective way to clean up the environment.

Cuccinelli didn’t mention in his remarks today an Albemarle County judge’s ruling yesterday that the attorney general’s office hasn’t sufficiently made its case against former University of Virginia climate scientist Michael Mann. Cuccinelli, a skeptic of global warming, is seeking to investigate Mann for possible fraudulent use of the taxpayer-funded grants that paid for the research. He said yesterday that he will revise his investigation and may appeal the ruling.

At today’s forum, Cuccinelli also spoke of his office’s lawsuit against the recently passed federal healthcare law. He said the federal government doesn’t have the right under the Constitution to order people to buy “Nancy-approved” health insurance, or to impose a fine if they don’t.

Cuccinelli said oral arguments in the case are scheduled for Oct. 18 in front of a U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He hopes the court will issue a verdict on the constitutionality of the healthcare law by Thanksgiving but suspects it will eventually go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“If we lose this case, it’s the end of federalism as we’ve known it for the past 223 years,” Cuccinelli said.

Bill Freehling: 540/374-5405 bfreehling@freelancestar.com