Republicans urge federal court to kill EPA smog rule

By Sean Reilly | 04/10/2024 06:24 AM EDT

Top congressional Republicans say the “good neighbor” rule is part of a plot to “hurriedly rid the U.S. power sector of fossil fuels.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.).

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) at the Capitol in March. She led a legal brief against a Biden administration rule on smog. Scott Applewhite/AP

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.

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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.

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