Congressional Republicans have leapt into the sprawling legal fight over an EPA smog control rule, arguing in a newly filed brief that regulators are using the Clean Air Act as a bludgeon to unlawfully transform the electric power sector.
The Biden administration’s “good neighbor” rule, the Republicans argue, is part of a broader strategy “designed to hurriedly rid the U.S. power sector of fossil fuels by sharply increasing the operating costs for fossil fuel-fired power plant operators, forcing the plants’ premature retirement.”
The argument was made in an amicus brief filed by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and almost four dozen other GOP lawmakers.
They are siding with the state of Utah and other challengers who want the court to throw out the rule, which further cracks down on smog-forming emissions from power plants and other industries that contribute to downwind compliance problems.
