West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is co-leading with Kentucky a 24-state coalition in a lawsuit to block a devastating new air quality rule from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would raise costs on West Virginia manufacturers, utilities and families.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
“This new rule is nothing more than another attempt from unelected bureaucrats to advance Biden’s radical climate agenda without regard to American’s economic wellbeing,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “Hardworking families would end up paying the price of this politically-charged left policy.”
Even before this heavy-handed new rule, the United States has some of the strictest air quality standards in the world – tougher than the European Union and far more stringent than the world’s worst polluters, including China, India and Indonesia.
Making the standards more stringent wouldn’t improve public health, but it would put as many as 30% of all U.S. counties out of compliance under federal law, leading to aggressive new permitting requirements that could effectively block new economic activity or job creation.
The new EPA rule could:
- Block the permitting of new manufacturing facilities and drive good-paying jobs out of West Virginia and overseas.
- Stop new infrastructure construction and leave West Virginia families on unsafe and congested roads and bridges.
- Require small businesses, farmers, restaurants and even homeowners to pay for costly new equipment.
The rule would weaken the U.S. economy while strengthening our competitors. According to a letter led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and 28 other leading industry associations, “lowering the current standard so dramatically would create a perverse disincentive for American investment. The EPA’s proposal could force investment in new facilities to foreign countries with less stringent air standards.”
Attorney General Morrisey co-led the lawsuit with Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman. They were joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming.
Original source can be found here.