Coal industry advocates Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) on Wednesday praised a recent federal court decision out of West Virginia that found that in not completing evaluations of potential job losses due to Clean Air Act regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency did not complete its duty under the law. “This decision from the West Virginia federal district court is long overdue,” Inhofe said in a prepared statement. “Despite clear requirements in the Clean Air Act, the EPA has failed to conduct analyses of how [its] unilateral regulations are affecting businesses and hard-working Americans across the country,”
On Monday, Judge John Preston Bailey of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia ruled in a case brought against the EPA by coal mining company Murray Energy, which said the agency did not “perform its duties” under the Clean Air Act to “conduct continuing evaluations of potential loss or shifts of employment which may result from the administration or enforcement of the provisions of [the Clean Air Act] and applicable implementation plan, including where appropriate, investigating threatened plant closures or reduction in employment allegedly resulting from such administration or enforcement.”
The ruling is similar to a Supreme Court decision against the EPA from June 2015. The court ruled 5-4 that the agency did not account for the potential costs of the implementation of the the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) in drafting the rule. The decision was somewhat symbolic as most sources had already complied with the rule. The West Virginia case may have the same result, as even if the EPA does the necessary evaluations, there is no guarantee that the finding would be significant enough to change any regulations Murray finds offensive.
“EPA has gone to great lengths to avoid the concerns of those most affected by its far-reaching regulations, crafting policies that fail to consider true economic costs like the thousands of jobs that have been lost throughout West Virginia. I’m pleased that Judge Bailey has ordered EPA to finally start the process of considering those impacts,” Capito said.
The ruling can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, The Hill reported.