CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has sent a letter to the leadership of the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee opposing the nomination of Janet Gaven McCabe as deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Ms. McCabe has twice been nominated for important positions at EPA, once by President Obama when the Senate was led by Senator Harry Reid, and again by President Obama when the Senate was led by Senator McConnell,” Morrisey wrote. “In each case, the result was the same — her nomination was not confirmed and was returned to the President at the close of each Congress. These were the correct decisions. Her prior nominations were rightly not confirmed because Ms. McCabe was a key architect of the Clean Power Plan. For that same reason and many more, I am urging the Senate to once again not confirm Ms. McCabe.”
In his letter, Morrisey contends the Obama-era Power Plan was wrong on policy and thus wrong for West Virginia and the nation. He also says a vote for McCabe is a vote for that misguided regulation.
McCabe
Morrisey challenged the Power Plan on the day it was published, blocked its enforcement with a victory at the U.S. Supreme Court and continued to lead a broad coalition to ensure its repeal. He says that Supreme Court victory in February 2016 stopped the Obama-era regulation and provided time for the Trump administration to correct the attempted overreach of its predecessor.
Morrisey says federal law sets clear limits on the EPA’s authority, and he says his office will work to enforce those limits and ensure that West Virginian and American energy and manufacturing jobs are protected from federal overreach by the Biden administration.
The letter was sent to Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Delaware), Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and other committee members.
