West Virginia Republicans in the House are urging their state’s governor not to comply with the Obama administration’s power plant rules, laying out a legal strategy of delay that would give courts more time to review the regulations that the Mountain State calls “illegal.”
The delegation of House lawmakers sent a letter Wednesday night to press Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin to resist the Environmental Protection Agency’s power plant rules, known as the Clean Power Plan, expected to be finalized in August. The lawmakers said the EPA rules would force the state to re-order its power grid, which would threaten power outages and drive up energy prices for consumers.
“The [Clean Power Plan] will undeniably force the state to change the way it produces electricity, reduce the amount of electricity used by West Virginia consumers, threaten grid reliability, and increase electricity prices on all West Virginians,” the letter reads, signed by GOP Reps. David McKinley, Alex Mooney and Evan Jenkins.
The congressmen urged Tomblin not to file the state’s implementation plan that the EPA is requiring. They urge him to delay as much as possible to give a federal court more time to review a lawsuit filed by the state and more than a dozen others to overturn the rules.
“[D]eclining to submit a plan will give the courts the necessary time to rule on whether the EPA’s proposed rule is legal while also giving Congress a chance to address its concerns with the plan,” the letter states, adding that Texas and Oklahoma have publicly announced they will not submit plans.
Tomblin is no fan of the Clean Power Plan. In recent weeks, he blasted the EPA for creating regulations that are exacerbating layoffs of coal miners and creating economic instability in the state. On May 22, Tomblin reacted to announcements by coal company Murray Energy on plans to lay off about 20 percent of its workforce due to the soft market conditions for coal.
The Clean Power Plan is expected to make things worse for coal when it is enacted later this summer. “For years, we have warned the EPA of the consequences of its irresponsible mandates. We will continue to oppose EPA policies that have devastating impacts on West Virginia miners, their families and our communities,” Tomblin said, reacting to last month’s layoff announcements.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made a similar plea in March, urging states not to comply with the aggressive and illegal regulations. Kentucky is also a party to the lawsuit that West Virginia is leading in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the rules. The court is expected to rule on the lawsuit at the end of the summer.
The Clean Power Plan is unlike conventional emission rules for power plants in that it places the onus on states to reduce emissions, rather than on the individual power plant owners.
The 14 states that are suing in the D.C. Circuit argue that the EPA lacks the authority to regulate states’ emissions in this way, while also making the claim that the agency is using regulation to rewrite the law, which constitutes regulatory “overreach” and a violation of the Constitution.
The rules are also the centerpiece of President Obama’s climate change agenda. The White House received the rules for pre-publication review on Tuesday, which means the EPA plan is in its final stage before becoming law sometime in August. After it is finalized, states will have a year to compile their plans and submit them to EPA.
