June 27, 2014 , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register
WHEELING – Nine attorneys general have joined Murray Energy Corp.’s lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over proposed regulations on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.
The attorneys general representing West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, Alaska, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming argue in their friend of the court brief, filed Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, that the EPA already regulates existing air emissions from power plants under the federal Clean Air Act through a rule released Feb. 16, 2012. The attorneys general contend the Clean Air Act prohibits double regulation of emissions by the EPA.
The EPA has said the prohibition only exists due to a clerical error in the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act, and that the agency does, indeed, have the authority to impose the new rule.