The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled against an effort from West Virginia Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial candidate Patrick Morrisey to halt Environmental Protection Agency requirements that would cut carbon pollution for power generated by coal and natural gas.
It’s not surprising that Morrisey would oppose regulations to better protect Americans’ health and curb climate change, considering West Virginia’s history as a coal state and a place where 91% of customers still rely on coal-fired plants for their electricity. This is, of course, by design.
Coal is now the most expensive form of generating electricity, but the coal barons and corporate interests around the fossil fuel industry have a stranglehold on energy policy in West Virginia. In fact, the state Public Service Commission approved another round of rate hikes this week for natural gas customers so Mountaineer Gas Co. and Hope Gas Inc. can cover the cost of pipeline replacement and expansion.
Frequent utility rate hikes to keep coal-fired power plants operating beyond their lifespan and at a capacity well beyond economic sense have been the norm in recent years, as well.
Although one might hope this most recent decision from the Supreme Court would drag West Virginia kicking and screaming into the 21st century, regarding the state’s economy and energy production, it’s not that simple. Morrisey and a cohort of other Republican attorneys general were trying to go straight to the top to get the new regulations blocked.
All the Supreme Court really did was state that it won’t block the regulations or get involved until, if or when legal challenges to the new regulations make their way through the lower courts. That’s as it should be, but what the high court might decide, should the case reach its docket, could be entirely different — and more permanent — than simply refusing an injunction.
Given the Supreme Court’s penchant for rolling back the clock on legal precedents and health care protections, it’s not difficult to imagine the conservative majority siding with Morrisey, if the court takes up the actual case. In fact, this very court recently cut the legs out from under the EPA, in relation to the Clean Air Act, and, two years ago, gave Morrisey a victory over the EPA in limiting what the federal agency can regulate, in regard to greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for climate change.
