An editorial from the Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway are urging an appeals court to decide quickly on a lawsuit over the legality of proposed carbon emission standards. The two attorney generals are correct in seeking a quicker ruling due to the tremendous harm the proposed carbon emission rules will and are already having on states like West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia.
We are already seeing that harm right here in the coalfields of southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia where there has been a noticeable decrease in coal mining activity in recent months, which is having a direct and damaging impact on the economy of our region.
The motion, filed last week by Morrisey and Conway in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, asks the court to consolidate the briefing schedule and rule on the lawsuit as quickly as possible. West Virginia and a bipartisan group of 11 other states filed the lawsuit in August. The lawsuit asks the court to compel the EPA to withdraw its proposed regulations, which the 11 states argue are illegal.
The motion says that the states are already spending time and money preparing to comply, so the sooner the ruling, the better, according to Morrisey. The motion also asks for oral arguments as soon as possible after Dec. 1. Noticeably absent from the lawsuit filed by the 11 states is the Commonwealth of Virginia. Despite the fact that coal is mined in Virginia, Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring and Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe are not challenging the new EPA rules that will have a direct and harmful impact on the coalfields of Southwest Virginia.
Thankfully, Morrisey, and the 11 other state attorney generals are doing what is right by fighting these unfair and unrealistic rules…
