CHARLESTON, W.Va. — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, today released the below statement on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reassert Congress’s authority and reject the regulatory overreach by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“As detailed in the bicameral amicus brief I led along with Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers, this case was critical in making clear that EPA does not have the authority to issue regulations that transform how we use and generate electricity in this country. If Congress had intended to give EPA such sweeping authority to transform an entire sector of our economy, Congress would have done so explicitly.

“Today’s decision by the Supreme Court is welcome news and further proves that EPA overstepped its authority by imposing enormously burdensome regulations on states to reconfigure our electric grid despite Congress’s rejection. I congratulate Attorney General Morrisey for his leadership on this important victory for West Virginia and the entire nation, which ensures that EPA can never issue an overreaching regulation like the Clean Power Plan again. EPA must follow the law, and as Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I will continue to conduct oversight of EPA to make sure the agency does not attempt to devastate the people and industries of West Virginia as it did with the Clean Power Plan ever again.”

BACKGROUND:

In December 2021, Ranking Member Capito and Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Republican Leader of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, led 47 senators and 44 House members on an amicus curiae brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the petitioners, including the state of West Virginia, in the case West Virginia, et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency. Read the full text of the amicus brief here.

In October 2019, Ranking Member Capito voted against the resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overturn the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule— a commonsense alternative to the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP). Passage of this resolution would have revived the Clean Power Plan.

In November 2015, the Senate passed a bipartisan resolution of disapproval under the CRA, introduced by Ranking Member Capito and former Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), that would prevent the EPA from moving forward with its proposed Clean Power Plan regulations for existing power sources. The resolution then passed the House in a bipartisan vote, only to be vetoed by President Obama.

 

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