West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is co-leading a coalition of 25 states in a petition asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to declare the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule unlawful.
The new rule pertains to the procedures under which states submit state implementation plans as mandated by Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act.
Attorney General Morrisey led a multistate coalition last February raising issues on the then proposed rule.
“It’s either the EPA missed our letter or ignored our concerns,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “Rather than listen to our advice, EPA has doubled down—issuing a rule that vastly increases the EPA’s authority while imposing compliance obligations even stricter under the Clean Air Act.”
“The states should retain their discretion on how to best regulate existing emission sources, like power plants.”
Under a section in the Clean Air Act, states must submit their plans for the establishment of implementation of standards of performance for existing emission sources. The new rule gives states less discretion in figuring out how these existing sources can comply with less time to comply.
“Petitioners will show that the final rule exceeds the agency’s statutory authority and otherwise is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law,” the coalition wrote in the petition filed Tuesday.
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming joined the West Virginia- and Oklahoma-led petition—the Arizona Legislature and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality also joined the petition.
Original source can be found here.