March 27th, 2017 by WCBC Radio
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey says he "eagerly anticipates that an executive order planned for this week will represent a landmark day in his three-year fight against former President Obama’s so-called Clean Power Plan."
Media reports this past weekend indicate President Trump will sign the long awaited executive order sometime this week.
Such action likely will fulfill the President’s promised rollback of his predecessor’s job-killing, anti-coal initiative, a move made possible by the Attorney General’s vigorous legal challenge and historic victory that blocked the Power Plan’s enforcement.
“Winning the stay built a bridge for a better day,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “Now that day is upon us. We can see the pathway to a better future – one that unwinds this horrible and unlawful power grab, restores confidence in coal and tells those communities devastated by the past eight years they are forgotten no more.”
West Virginia led the 27-state coalition that paved the way for this week’s anticipated victory.
That includes the Oct. 23, 2015, challenge of the Power Plan on the very day it was published, as well as the Supreme Court’s historic and unprecedented stay of the regulation, Feb. 9, 2016.
Together, those successes blocked enforcement of the Power Plan and provided time for a new administration and the anticipated executive order.
The states have long argued the Power Plan exceeded the EPA’s congressional authority and violates the U.S. Constitution by attempting to commandeer and coerce the states into carrying out federal energy policy.
The EPA specifically overstepped its authority by transforming the nation’s energy industry, double regulating coal-fired power plants and forcing states to fundamentally shift their energy portfolios away from coal-fired generation.
The Attorney General, in a multistate letter signed Dec. 14, 2016, urged then President-elect Trump to pursue formal administrative action to withdraw the Power Plan and resolve related matters in court. It also called upon Congress to take longer-term legislative action to prevent any future EPA from drafting similarly unlawful and/or more extreme rules.
West Virginia and Texas brought the legal challenge with a broad, bipartisan coalition that includes Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming, along with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and other state agencies.
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