To Participants and Friends of Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition (MVCAC):
The MVCAC has joined in with a number of other conservation and non-profit groups to challenge the authority of the WV attorney general to oppose the US EPA "clean power plan" in the federal courts. The WV attorney general instituted this action without any explicit rationale or request from a state agency or official. The WV attorney general has gone farther and implied to the courts and to various federal agencies that he represents the people of WV in this matter. Yet, there are thousands of WV citizens that are not represented or believe otherwise.
Three documents below include the Washington Post article this week on human health effects of coal fired power plants, then an article on the actions of US attorneys general, and then the press release on our action in the US Court of Appeals, DC Circuit.
ACTION ITEM # 1. It is essential that you reply and send $20 to maintain participation in the MVCAC, otherwise we will have inadequate numbers to maintain our non-profit status with the IRS. Please send a check to:
MVCAC Treasurer, 659 Hoard Road, Morgantown, WV, 26508
ACTION ITEM # 2. Our current bank balance is $991.95. If you are in favor of a contribution of $500 from MVCAC to this legal action, please indicate this in an email reply to this message.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/coal-is-king-among-po...
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Some 44 states take sides in Clean Power Plan legal melee
Summary: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is leading a coalition of 18 states and some cities and counties in defense of the Clean Power Plan. The group has filed a motion to intervene to defend the federal greenhouse gas plan, Greenwire reports.
They are squared off against 26 states who have filed a variety of legal challenges. Only six states have so far remained neutral: Alaska, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
It's not often a regulatory package divides the nation so starkly, but the EPA's carbon regulations have done just that.
Nearly every state has jumped into the legal battle over the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, an unprecedented level of interest in federal climate rules. "I can't recall a Clean Air Act rule, or other EPA rule, that had 44 states in the mix," Joe Stanko, an attorney at Hunton & Williams, told Greenwire, with the news outlet describing the expanding legal fight a "brawl."
The more than two dozen states challenging the rule "are the most ever to challenge an EPA rule and, as far as I know, any federal action," said Bracewell & Giuliani attorney Jeff Holmstead.
Through a variety of legal challenges – the largest includes 24 states led by West Virginia – some 26 states have filed lawsuits to block the Clean Power Plan.
In total, states opposed to the rule include: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The 18 states filing to defend the plan include: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. The District of Columbia, Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia have also signed on.
“Climate change represents an unprecedented threat to the environment, public health, and our economy. We no longer can afford to respond to this threat with denials or obstruction,” New York AG Schneiderman said in a statement. "We are committed to aggressively defending the Clean Power Plan to ensure progress is made in confronting climate change.”
And on the other side:
"The Clean Power Plan is one of the most far-reaching energy regulations in this nation’s history," said West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. "West Virginia is proud to be leading the charge against this Administration’s blatant and unprecedented attack on coal.”
Beyond rhetoric, Greenwire points out the reason for the divide: The 18 states supporting the rule make up only about 12% of the emissions reductions required by the CPP, and include a couple of states not covered by the rule (Vermont and Hawaii; Alaska has remained neutral). States challenging the plan make up about 80% of the required reductions.
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West Virginia Groups Oppose Morrisey’s Attack on the Clean Power Plan
Citing numerous health studies plaintiffs insist the need for CPP is now.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Coal River Mountain Watch, Kanawha Forest Coalition, the Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition and Keepers of the Mountains Foundation have moved to intervene in an action previously filed by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Attorney Generals from 23 other states which seeks to delay and ultimately invalidate the Clean Power Plan adopted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
The Clean Power Plan is designed to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. Under the Plan, each state is required to develop a plan on how it is intends to achieve the emission reductions. Under West Virginia law, the Governor, with the help of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, will develop this “State Implementation Plan” and it will be reviewed by the West Virginia Legislature before it is submitted to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
In the long run, Mr. Morrisey seeks to invalidate the regulations that carry out the Clean Power Plan. In the short run, he seeks to prevent the regulations from going into effect while the case is pending in court. Mr. Morrisey claims to speak for all West Virginians.
“We feel compelled to intervene so that the Court will have the benefit of viewpoints other than that of Mr. Morrisey, a viewpoint not shared by all West Virginians,” said Cynthia D. Ellis, president of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. “This case is about whether we want to live in the present and prepare for the future or cling to the past. Coal has been our main source of electricity for a century. Mr. Morrisey wants to go back to that past, a past that has made West Virginians sick and contributed to climate change. We want to move forward to a future where there is more balance in meeting our energy needs.”
The Motion to Intervene points out that in “literally dozens of recent peer-reviewed studies, diligent medical researchers have documented the fact that particulate matter — whether emitted from electric utility plants directly, or indirectly from the mountaintop removal mining projects from which those utilities obtain their fuel supply — results in statistically significant increases of birth defects, decreased birth weights, diminished educational attainment, increased cancer, pulmonary and cardiac disease, and very substantially decreased life expectancy.”
“This is about who speaks for West Virginia and for West Virginians,” said Janet Keating, executive director of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “Mr. Morrisey presumes to speak for the State and for all of us. His opinion may be that there is a war on coal and that all West Virginians should resist. This is not true. Climate change is a serious problem and we all have to do our part in addressing it.”
“The Clean Power Plan is far from perfect, and we may disagree with what West Virginia ultimately proposes as a plan to reduce emissions,” said Vernon Haltom, executive director of Coal River Mountain Watch. “But scrapping the Clean Power Plan entirely and betting West Virginia’s health and economic future on the miraculous resurgence of a polluting finite resource is not a solution.”
The case is filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. West Virginia groups are being represented by William DePaulo, an attorney based in Lewisburg, W.Va.
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Best wishes, Duane Nichols, Cell- 304-216-5535.