WASHINGTON – West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office went to the U.S. Supreme Court for oral arguments about the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases.
“Whatever your position is on the major question of climate change, Congress needs to settle it as opposed to unaccountable agencies,” Morrisey said February 28 after the oral arguments that lasted more than two hours. “Should it be unelected bureacrats, or should it be the people’s representatives in Congress?”
Morrisey is leading a group of 19 mostly Republican-led states and coal mining companies in the legal battle. It stems from a 2021 ruling from the federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that eliminated the Affordable Clean Energy rule by saying the Trump administration didn’t follow the Clean Air Act and other pollution standards. Morrisey said that ruling gave the EPA too much power.
Morrisey
“We were able to articulate a lot of strength in terms of why this represents a major question of the day,” Morrisey said after the oral arguments, which were handled by Solicitor General Lindsay See. “We are cautiously optimistic about this. We know they’re going to deliberate and come up with a result in June. We’re encouraged by how the argument went.”
According to an Associated Press story about the arguments, some of the conservative justices seemed skeptical of broad EPA authority over carbon dioxide emissions.
“Major questions of the day need to be resolved by Congress as opposed to an unaccountable bureaucracy,” Morrisey said. “This is a matter for Congress to decide. That doesn’t speak to ultimately what Congress should do, but it is their prerogative to take action.”
In 2016, Morrisey’s office won a stay at the U.S. Supreme Court the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. In 2019, the Trump administration introduced the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which Morrisey’s office says provided states with more flexibility in developing emission standards.
Under President Joe Biden, the EPA has not introduced a new policy. It is expected by the end of 2022, and a final rule should be in place in 2023.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue its findings in the case in June.
U.S. Supreme Court case number 20-1530