19 States Ask Supreme Court to Rein In EPA Powers Over Coal Plants
West Virginia and 18 other states are asking the Supreme Court to review the scope of the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory authority over greenhouse gases after an appeals court struck down a Trump-era rule months ago on carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.
“The case, if granted, would be the biggest climate question to reach the Supreme Court in more than a decade,” according to Bloomberg Law. In Massachusetts v. EPA (2007), the Supreme Court gave the agency the power to regulate greenhouse gases.
The Jan. 19 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was a victory for left-wing environmentalists that helped clear the way for the then-incoming Biden administration to impose new restrictions on the energy sector.
May 1, 2021
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey was back on the case last week as he led a 19-state coalition in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop an appeals court ruling that would give the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority to “decarbonize virtually any sector of the economy,” as Morrisey’s office put it.
This fight is similar to one Morrisey and his colleagues have won once before, when they fought overreach by President Barack Obama’s EPA.
“This wildly expansive power to regulate factories, hospitals and even homes has tremendous costs and consequences for all Americans, in particular West Virginia’s coal miners, pipeliners, natural gas producers and utility workers as well as the countless others who rely upon their success,” Morrisey said. “If EPA lacks such expansive authority, as we argue, the Supreme Court should make that clear now. Any further delay will impose costs the energy sector can never recoup and force states to sin
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Apr 30, 2021
It must have been quite a victory for President Joe Biden to receive the backing of the United Mine Workers in his plan to move away from coal and other fossil fuels in exchange for a “true energy transition.” Biden claims that transition will include thousands of jobs in renewable energy and spending on technology to make coal cleaner.
In fact, there is a lot that sounds promising in Biden’s adjusted approach to helping those who would lose their livelihoods if the administration’s goals are achieved. Rather than simply damage those workers, families and communities and then abandon them, a recent report says “President Biden is committed to providing federal leadership in partnership with coal, oil and gas, and power plant communities to create good-paying union jobs, spur economic revitalization, remediate environmental degradation, and support energy workers.”