West Virginia has filed a “friend of the court brief” with the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to get the Court to rein in the federal Environmental Protection Agency when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced the filing Friday. West Virginia joins the states of Kansas and Montana in the EPA challenge.
The states want the Supreme Court to take up an appeal of a lower court ruling in favor of the EPA. They say the ruling allows the EPA to go too far with the Clean Air Act.
The joint announcement Friday said “the U.S. Supreme Court should hear the case to clarify that the EPA has misinterpreted the Clean Air Act and acted outside the scope of its legal and Constitutional authority.”
Gov. Tomblin says he wrote President Barack Obama a letter last month about the EPA’s “anti-coal policies.”
“The EPA’s proposed limits on greenhouse gas emissions threaten the livelihood of our coal miners to the point of killing jobs and crippling our state and national economies, while also weakening our country’s efforts toward energy independence. I hope the high court recognizes the urgency and critical importance of our brief for all Americans,” Tomblin said in Friday’s statement.
Morrisey says the action of the EPA will have a devastating impact on industry and consumers.
“Once again, the EPA is moving ahead on an issue with little regard for the plain language of the statute and the people who are directly impacted by these incredible new burdens,” Morrisey said.