CHARLESTON, WV (WVDN) — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is co-leading with Indiana a coalition of 25 states in a lawsuit asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review and declare unlawful the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recently-released new rule on existing coal-, natural gas- and oil-fired power plants.
The rule would force power plants fueled by coal or natural gas to capture smokestack emissions or shut down. It would regulate those plants under the Clean Air Act by imposing more stringent emissions standards. The rule ignored 2022’s rebuke from the U.S. Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA , which warned that EPA should not use a narrow regulatory provision to force coal-fired power plants into retirement en masse .
“The EPA continues to not fully understand the direction from the Supreme Court—unelected bureaucrats continue their pursuit to legislate rather than rely on elected members of Congress for guidance,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “This green new deal agenda the Biden administration continues to force onto the people is setting up the plants to fail and therefore shutter, altering the nation’s already stretched grid.”
Congress (still) hasn’t given EPA clear statutory authorization to remake the electricity grids. That means the agency cannot sidestep Congress to exercise broad regulatory power that would radically transform the nation’s energy grids—and force states to fundamentally shift their energy portfolios away from fossil fuel-fired generation.