WASHINGTON, D.C. — State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey will testify Tuesday before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works’ Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee on the “Legal Implications of the Clean Power Plan.”
Morrisey aims to spotlight the negative effects of the Obama Administration’s plan to reduce coal usage, which the EPA plans to finalize this summer. He claims the “abuse of power” would directly hurt West Virginia, which ranks second among states in coal production.
“If the proposed regulations go into effect, it will have a devastating impact on West Virginia, other coal producing states, as well as consumers who live in states that burn coal for energy,” Morrisey said. “It is imperative that people understand the real harm that could be inflicted by these onerous and illegal regulations.”
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito is the subcommittee chairwoman. West Virginia is leading a bipartisan coalition of states in a lawsuit against the EPA, claiming that a rule proposed last June requiring states to reduce carbon dioxide emission by 30 percent in 15 years is not legal.
The lawsuit challenges the legality of the regulations because they aim to require states to regulate coal-fired power plants despite the EPA already regulating those plants under its hazardous air pollutant program. Amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990 prevented this double regulation.
Morrisey claims the EPA is pushing these laws to make it economically impossible for the nation to burn coal.
Morrisey will be the first of five people to testify.