Battling the EPA Assault
Today, the West Virginia attorney general’s office will take the lead before a panel of nine judges and make our best case against President Obama’s so-called “Clean Power Plan.”
The Power Plan is an unlawful federal rule that forces states to stop using the most affordable, reliable form of energy — coal.
After years of preparation by staff in my office — including a victory at the U.S. Supreme Court that halted the Power Plan — West Virginia’s legal arguments will finally be heard by one of our nation’s most important federal courts.
This is a crucial moment in the battle against the Obama Administration’s war on coal families.
Over the past year, my office has led a large, bipartisan coalition of states — a majority of all states — to sue EPA over the legality of its job-killing Power Plan. West Virginia and its coalition was the first to file the lawsuit, which is why the case bears the name West Virginia v. EPA.
I was not content to surrender to Washington, D.C., just because the fight would be difficult. West Virginia will not sit on the sidelines in these battles — we will help lead them.
Our coalition is large and strong with labor unions, consumer groups, businesses, utilities, coal companies and a bipartisan coalition of 29 states and state agencies on our side.
We are united on the proposition that the president lacks the power to pick winners and losers in the energy market and that he cannot bypass the states’ traditional role to manage energy resources.
Our fight against the Clean Power Plan matters to every West Virginian because it will negatively affect so many people. This rule devastates coal, coal miners, coal retirees and their families and puts at risk thousands of well-paying jobs and affordable energy for our state.
Not only that, but local communities and counties that rely on coal, including the tax revenue that coal generates for schools and roads, are harmed.
Places like Boone County, among many others, were forced to slash school funding because of the collapse of tax revenue from coal jobs. Moreover, local businesses that rely on coal jobs — from equipment supply and repair to the local grocery store — are all hurt by the radical EPA agenda.
Residents who work and live far from coal country are not exempt. As power plants are forced to use more expensive forms of energy like wind or solar, higher costs are passed onto the consumers by increasing electricity bills.
Working families and retirees can least afford the higher electricity bills that result from EPA’s Power Plan and other federal regulations.
This is why West Virginia is fighting the Clean Power Plan and is happy to finally get its day before a federal court.
West Virginians have always stood up to defend what’s right. The state attorney general’s office will do everything in its power to defeat this out-of-control EPA.
Morrisey is state attorney general for West Virginia.
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