The 30 states challenging President Obama’s far-reaching climate rules slammed other states Tuesday for supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations.
“I will strongly oppose efforts by anyone to bully job producers into compliance with this illegal and unprecedented regulation,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Tuesday after 12 states, the District and the Virgin Islands filed a court brief in support of EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
After last month’s 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court to halt the rule, Morrisey said “states should put their pencils down and not waste taxpayer dollars by coming into compliance with a regulation that will not be upheld in court.”
The high court stayed the Clean Power Plan Feb. 9, giving the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals time to review the merits of case presented by the 30 states and dozens of groups that call the rule illegal. The plan requires states to reduce greenhouse gas emission one-third by 2030 by targeting fossil fuel power plants powered by coal, while supporting the development of renewables. Many scientists blame greenhouse gas emission for changing the Earth’s climate, resulting in more droughts, flooding and other catastrophic weather.
Tuesday is the deadline for supporters of the plan to file “friend of the court,” or amicus, briefs with the federal appeals court. The states did so this morning, and other groups are expected to follow suit throughout the day.
Morrisey said states should be standing together in opposition to the Clean Power Plan. “We have stood with more than 29 states and state agencies, all of whom remain in steadfast opposition to the EPA’s Power Plan,” he said, calling the regulations “an unlawful power grab of epic proportions.”
He said the emissions regulations go further than “virtually any regulation we have seen in our lifetime.” Morrisey warned that if left unchallenged, “this power grab will increase electricity rates, jeopardize the power grid’s reliability and destroy West Virginia’s coal industry along with the livelihoods of countless families who depend upon its success.”
