Sierra Club Virginia: AG Miyares Decision to Withdraw from Supreme Court Climate Case Fails Virginians

RICHMOND -- Yesterday afternoon, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced that he would withdraw his office from a lawsuit in which the Commonwealth of Virginia was previously defending life-saving climate action and clean air safeguards before the Supreme Court. 

In West Virginia v. EPA, a group of right-wing politicians and coal industry executives are attempting to use their opposition to the Clean Power Plan – an Obama-era policy that was never implemented – to attack the authority of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce carbon pollution from fossil fuel-burning power plants, which are currently driving the climate crisis. These extremists are trying to go far beyond the bounds of the case in hopes of stripping public servants at federal agencies of their ability to carry out their Congressionally-mandated duties. If adopted by the Court, their dangerous legal theories would gut federal agencies’ authority to enforce laws that safeguard our air and water, ensure that businesses from agriculture to telecommunications to transportation treat consumers fairly, and protect the health of our families and communities. You can read more about this critically important lawsuit here and here on the Sierra Club’s website.

Previously, the Virginia Attorney General’s office intervened to help prevent these extremist attacks.

The Sierra Club is a party in this case, and filed a brief on Tuesday establishing clear reasons why the Court should reject these extremist measures. Other parties supporting the EPA’s authority to reduce dangerous carbon pollution–authority Jason Miyares has now spurned–include environmental organizations, state governments, and utilities all across the country.

In response, Mary-Stuart Torbeck, Campaign Representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Virginia, released the following statement:

“Attorney General Miyares is taking the side of coal company executives in attempting to dismantle climate action tools in this critical legal case. Siding with polluters is a transparent effort to sacrifice public health for the sake of corporate profits. 

“This action flies in the face of his duty to put the needs of our communities first. Virginia deserves leaders willing to stand up to corporate polluters attempting to tear down public health safeguards that protect our communities, air, and water. 

“With this and Governor Youngkin’s selection of coal lobbyist and former Trump Administration official Andrew Wheeler as Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources, the new leadership in Richmond is putting the health of Virginia families at risk rather than protecting them.”