WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United Mine Workers of America has filed a petition for review in federal court regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently implemented carbon emission standards for coal-fired power plants.
The petition was filed May 20 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The rule would force existing power plants fueled by coal or natural gas to capture smokestack emissions or shut down. It would regulate those plants under the Clean Air Act by imposing more stringent emissions standards.
“The impact of this rule will be devastating not only for our members but for thousands of families throughout coalfield communities,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said. “This devastation will occur quickly if this rule stands, as there are no equivalent jobs ready or even in the pipeline to replace the jobs that will be lost.
Roberts
| File photo
“This created exactly the situation we have been working to prevent for many years.”
The UMWA released its Preserving Coal Country initiative in 2021, which Roberts said made the preservation of as many coal jobs as possible the union’s primary goal.
“Our analysis of this new EPA rule is that it will wipe out the vast majority of them by 2032,” Roberts said. “Those are our members, and we are obligated both legally and morally to fight for them. We will always put them first.
“We further believe this rule does not meet the bar set by the Supreme Court in its 2022 decision in West Virginia vs EPA. We therefore have no choice but to file this petition, suing the EPA and stopping this rule from ever being implemented.”
On the day the EPA announced the new rule, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey co-led a group of 25 AGs asking the same court to declare it illegal in a petition filed May 9 against the EPA and Administrator Michael Regan.
The AGs say the rule ignores 2022’s rebuke from the U.S. Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA, which warned that EPA should not use a narrow regulatory provision to force coal-fired power plants into retirement en masse.
“The EPA continues to not fully understand the direction from the Supreme Court — unelected bureaucrats continue their pursuit to legislate rather than rely on elected members of Congress for guidance,” Morrisey said. “This green new deal agenda the Biden administration continues to force onto the people is setting up the plants to fail and therefore shutter, altering the nation’s already stretched grid.”
In the 279-page petition, the AGs say Congress has not given EPA clear statutory authorization to remake the electricity grids, meaning the agency cannot sidestep Congress to exercise regulatory power that would transform the nation’s energy grids and force states to shift their energy portfolios away from fossil fuel-fired generation.
“This rule strips the states of important discretion while using technologies that don’t work in the real world—this administration packaged this rule with several other rules aimed at destroying traditional energy providers,” Morrisey said. “We are confident we will once again prevail in court against this rogue agency.”
The AG’s office also said it soon will be filing a motion to stay the new rule.
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming joined the West Virginia- and Indiana-led lawsuit.