The EPA announced the publication of a final rule on April 25 for new natural gas turbines and existing coal-fired power plants to implement hydrogen co-firing and carbon capture and sequestration/storage (CCS) to lower their output of carbon emissions. The move won praise for President Joe Biden’s administration from environmental groups but prompted alarm from fossil fuel industry allies.
On Thursday, Republican West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey led a multi-state petition for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the new EPA rule. The petition calls for the court to declare these new EPA regulations unlawful.
Joining Mr. Morrisey were Republican attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.
The petition for review does not include specific legal arguments but does signify the interest of these state attorneys general in reversing the EPA rulemaking.
In a press statement announcing the legal filing, Mr. Morrisey noted a previous West Virginia-led effort to challenge an EPA rulemaking, which saw the U.S. Supreme Court rule in the state’s favor in 2022 to limit the executive agency’s rulemaking abilities. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in the 2022 case of West Virginia v. EPA that earlier efforts to regulate carbon emissions from existing power plants fall under the “major questions doctrine,” which presumes Congress does not delegate to executive branch agencies regulatory authority over major issues concerning political or economic matters.
In his Thursday press statement, Mr. Morrisey argued that the new EPA rule would force coal or natural gas power plants to implement the agency’s carbon reduction measures or face shutdown.
Announcing the new power plant rules last year, EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan denied that the new regulations were aimed at shutting down the coal sector but acknowledged that “we will see some coal retirements” through the new rules.
