25 states fight EPA's power plant smokestack regulations

West Virginia and Indiana are leading a group of 25 states asking for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to declare the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule on coal, natural gas and oil power plants to be declared unlawful.

The new EPA rule will require coal and natural gas power plants to capture smokestack emissions or shutter.

“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,” West Virginia Attorney General 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.”

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 are part of the lawsuit.

Morrisey and the attorneys general argue Congress did not give EPA the authority to create rules to remake the electricity grid and the rules are taking to make broad regulatory authority away from Congress.

West Virginia successfully fought EPA rules in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 as the court said the EPA should not use its regulatory authority to create broad new regulations with the Clean Air Act.

West Virginia, Indiana and others have continued to fight several other EPA proposals including the “Good Neighbor Plan” and the EPA’s new rule on electric vehicles.