Sierra Club: Coal Companies & Politicians in West Virginia v. EPA Briefs Push Extremist Agenda

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Yesterday, the politicians and coal companies who are petitioning the United States Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA submitted their initial legal briefs in the case. As the briefs make clear, these petitioners are asking the Court to go far beyond what is needed to clarify the relevant portions of the Clean Air Act. Instead, the petitioners are seeking to redefine the Court’s precedents so as to fundamentally erode the ability of our government to protect the public.

Last January, Sierra Club and its allies successfully persuaded the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that the Trump EPA’s appallingly weak limits on power sector carbon pollution hinged upon a plain misreading of the Clean Air Act. The Supreme Court will now decide whether (as the court below held) the Trump Administration incorrectly interpreted the law by arbitrarily restricting its own authority to curtail carbon dioxide emissions from dirty fossil fuel-burning power plants.

In response, Sierra Club Senior Attorney Andres Restrepo released the following statement:

“Today, a group of coal companies and politicians allied with them urged the Supreme Court to effectively gut the Environmental Protection Agency’s long-standing authority to reduce climate-disrupting carbon dioxide pollution from coal- and gas-burning power plants. This comes at a time when the consequences of the climate crisis are reaching dire new heights.

“Even worse, the coal industry and its political allies are trying to exploit this litigation to advance an ideological goal that goes far beyond the bounds of this case. Rather than focus on the words of the Clean Air Act, they are asking the Court to fashion aggressive legal principles—in particular by expanding a judicial rule known as 'the Major Questions Doctrine'— that would obstruct dedicated public servants at government agencies from carrying out their Congressionally-mandated duties, whether that involves enforcing consumer protection laws, safeguarding the health of our families and communities, regulating Wall Street, protecting clean air and water, or monitoring the safety of pharmaceuticals.

“Sierra Club is confident that the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is consistent with the text, history, and structure of the Clean Air Act. We will vigorously defend EPA authority as we prepare our briefs before the Supreme Court, and will fight these extremists’ efforts to politicize this case and drag it far afield from the question at hand.”