Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has joined 20 other states in signing a letter opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed new rule on existing coal, natural gas, and oil power plants.
The EPA’s proposal attempts to close those plants under the Clean Air Act by imposing new aggressive emission standards. It also disregards last year’s Supreme Court ruling in West Virginia v. EPA, which warned against the EPA using narrow regulatory provisions to force coal-fired power plants into retirement.
“This is yet another far-reaching attempt by the Biden administration to regulate what it cannot legislate, and hardworking Georgians would pay the price,” said Carr. “The EPA’s proposed rule would leave plants with only one of two options – spend millions of dollars in an effort to comply with arduous and seemingly impossible federal standards or cease operations entirely. The result would be lost jobs and wages for people across our state, and we will continue fighting to ensure the rule of law is upheld.”
As explained in a press release from Carr’s office, the letter explains “how the proposal violates the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA because Congress still has not provided the EPA with clear statutory authorization to remake the electricity grids. That means the agency cannot sidestep Congress to exercise broad regulatory power that would radically transform the nation’s energy grids and force states to fundamentally shift their energy portfolios away from fossil fuel-fired generation.”
In signing the letter, Carr was joined by the attorney generals of Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
