June 21, 2013 · West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has joined 20 other states in a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking the agency not to enter into settlement discussions with 10 states, the District of Columbia and New York City.
The ten states as well as several environmental groups, have threatened a lawsuit over what they see as the EPA’s failure to timely regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
In their letter dated June 18, attorneys general from 21 states urge the EPA’s Acting Administrator not to enter into any form of settlement negotiations or give all states the opportunity to participate in the resolution of the threatened lawsuit.
In an April letter stating their intentions to sue, the 10 states and others claimed the EPA failed to perform its mandatory duties because it has not finalized a performance standard for greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants within one year of introduction; and issue greenhouse gas emission guidelines for existing power plants. These states claim that the EPA’s purported failures violate the Clean Air Act.
Morrisey says that if the proposed new source performance standard were finalized in its current form, it would prohibit new power plants from using coal unless they implemented costly carbon capture and storage technology.
