West Virginia AG Morrisey challenges EPA authority
(The Center Square) – West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey joined with 23 other states to question the legality and value of a proposed oil and natural gas law from the Environmental Protection Agency.
According to the joint letter, the EPA rule regulates the transportation and storage of oil and natural gas production sources without making endangerment findings required by Congress and expands methane regulations through redundant and costly requirements. The proposal does not contain any regulatory text, but instead states it will provide supplemental rule making in the future. It also considers additional sources and emissions guidelines in the potential future rule making.
“The proposed rule’s costs are especially damaging given that EPA intends to impose them in the midst of a tightening energy market,” the letter stated. “Consumers are already facing some of their highest heating bills in years because of spiking energy prices and brutal temperatures. With recent international tensions in key energy-producing areas, market conditions might only worsen in the near- and medium-term. And across the board, American consumers and businesses are paying more money for essential goods and services. EPA should be especially reluctant to impose high costs in conditions like these—at least without even more compelling benefits on the other side of the scale. Yet the proposed rule does not appear to acknowledge these relevant conditions at all.”
According to the attorney general’s office, the rule could cost West Virginia’s environmental regulatory agency more than $278 million every year under the EPA’s proposed two-year timetable. The coalition also claims the rule incorrectly reinstates legal deficiencies of the 2016 Clean Air Act rule, reflects an unbalanced view of prior regulations and improperly preserves duplicative and costly regulations, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office.
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