The lead attorney in a major legal fight against the Obama administration’s climate rules is urging Donald Trump to make repealing the rules a key part of his energy agenda if elected president in November.
“We would be supportive if Donald Trump came out with a decision,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Monday at an event at the National Press Club in Washington.
Trump is scheduled to deliver a major speech in North Dakota on Thursday, where he is expected to frame his energy policy agenda.
The presumptive nominee’s energy and climate adviser, Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., is recommending Trump undo several Environmental Protection Agency rules, including the Clean Power Plan, which is the centerpiece of President Obama’s climate change agenda and the legal fight.
“From the state of West Virginia’s perspective, I would encourage the next president to withdraw those regulations,” Morrisey said. “I think there is an ability to withdraw most of these regulations and do so in a timely manner. That would obviously be preferable to wasting valuable taxpayer resources challenging a regulation that we think ultimately should be deemed unlawful.”
Morrisey is leading 30 states in a lawsuit challenging the EPA’s authority to institute the far-reaching climate plan. He says the plan both violates the Clean Air Act and the Constitution.
The plan places the onus on states to reduce one-third of their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Morrisey argues that the EPA has never regulated the electric power sector in this way before, requiring states to make cuts instead of the power plants themselves, making it an unprecedented example of federal overreach.
Former EPA air chief Jeff Holmstead, who shared the stage with Morrisey at the event, said undoing the regulation by the next president would be “quite simple” to do.
“I have actually been involved in a couple of transitions from one party to the other,” Holmstead said. “I served in the first Bush administration, then again in the second. And I can tell you there are certain regulations that are very difficult for a new administration to change or undo. But this is not one of those regulations.”
The Clean Power Plan is under a Supreme Court stay while the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals hears the case. Oral arguments were slated for next week, but were recently pushed back to Sept. 27.
Morrisey is optimistic about the date change. He expects a ruling by November or December, which could move the case to the Supreme Court by the end of the year. If it takes the case, the high court would hear it next year.
