West Virginia AG calls Supreme Court EPA ruling a ‘huge victory’

West Virginia’s Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on Thursday applauded the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling that limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to deal with power plants, in a major blow to the agency’s ability to regulate climate change.

The majority ruled that Congress did not authorize the EPA to induce a shift to cleaner energy sources.

Morrisey told Fox News, “This is a huge victory of our American system of government.“

West Virginia has been at the forefront a few Republican-led states and coal companies in their effort to limit the EPA’s power to issue regulations that would allow the curtailing of carbon emissions.

Morrisey added that the case is “a very important victory for separation of powers, for the rule of law” and what he said would ensure that “overreaching government knows it has limits.”

“This is about maintaining the separation of powers, not climate change,” he said in a statement. “And we’re not done. My office will continue to fight for the rights of West Virginians when those in Washington try to go too far in asserting broad powers without the people’s support.”

He added that “We’ve said one simple thing — that if you have a major issue of the day, Congress needs to be the decider, not an unelected bureaucracy. That’s what today’s decision means.”

Morrisey also pushed back on Sen. Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) statement calling the decision “devastating”.

He shared that the Supreme Court decision means that Congress has the power to regulate and legislate on the issue.

“I think that when people start to scream that the Earth is falling, they have to go back to the fact that for many years, these agencies have been running amok. They’ve tried to regulate in areas where they’ve lacked power to do so. This is Congress’s realm, and I think he [Schumer] needs to look themselves in the mirror and say, this is Congress’s job and not that of an unelected bureaucracy,” he added.

His statement comes as some Democrat lawmakers called for Congress to pass legislation codifying the the EPA’s authority to tackle climate change. Close to 200 Congressional Democrats joined an amicus brief in January on the side of the EPA in the case.