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CHARLESTON -- West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey led a 19-state coalition this week in urging the Biden administration to reject a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule that will unduly burden power plants without meaningful benefits to the public.
In a comment letter filed late Monday, the coalition argued the Biden administration's proposal would exchange the manageable standard provided by a Trump-era rule for re-imposing crushing costs and an atmosphere of uncertainty that resulted from EPA's previous erroneous findings. The rule would thereby increase the cost of electricity at a time when inflation is already taking money from people's pockets.
"The Biden administration's overreach is hitting West Virginians in their wallets at a time when money is already tight for many," Attorney General Morrisey said.
"This rule is the latest example of regulatory overreach that is becoming the norm with the current administration. West Virginia was part of the coalition that challenged the EPA's efforts the last time EPA tried this, and West Virginia is proud to be leading the opposition here against this renewed effort."
In the letter, the coalition reminds EPA of what the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 when it rebuked EPA in a landmark case, Michigan v. EPA: in the Clean Air Act, Congress treated "power plants differently from other sources."
Before EPA can apply certain, more restrictive aspects of the Act to regulate those plants, it must take the extra step of finding that the stricter regulation is both appropriate and necessary despite the many other regulatory programs that are already in place under the Act.
The letter argues EPA has not done that and nevertheless is pressing on to the detriment of the plants that will be subject to this unnecessary regulation.
If implemented, the proposed EPA rule would impose an incredible burden on many of the regulated plants that they shouldn't have to bear. They may then pass the financial costs of this burden to ratepayers in the form of higher power bills or shut down altogether.
West Virginia signed the letter with attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
Read the comments letter filing at https://bit.ly/369Y2sY.