WV Attorney General Leads Troops in Attack on EPA

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey took the lead in drafting  an amicus brief that was signed off on by eight other state attorneys general.  The brief supported  a circuit court's rejection of EPA's interstate air pollution rule. A press release from his office describes it this way: 

West Virginia’s amicus, or friend of the court, brief argues that EPA exceeded its authority under the federal Clean Air Act when the agency promulgated a rule in 2011 announcing new air pollution cuts and imposing federal implementation plans on states. The brief argues the CAA requires the EPA to give states an opportunity to decide how to meet new air pollution standards. 

West Virginia is joined on the brief by a bipartisan group of attorneys general representing the states of Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. The brief supports fifteen other states, as well as industry groups and labor organizations, who sued EPA on this issue in 2011. In August 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down the regulation, saying that it “exceeds the agency’s statutory authority.” The Supreme Court agreed to review the rule earlier this year. 

An article  from Jessica Karmasek is here.  The brief that was filed (and it is well-written) is here.