Longview Chamber Joining Suit Against the EPA

LONGVIEW – The Longview Chamber of Commerce is joining in a federal lawsuit against the EPA’s carbon regulations. The chamber joins 166 other state and business associations from 40 states in an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. They claim the regulations will have a devastating economic impact. The appeals court should hear the case this summer. The suit is over involves EPA’s “Clean Power Plan” rules, which aim to reconfigure state electricity systems.

In issuing these regulations, the EPA purports to have found the authority to regulate how states generate, transmit, and use electricity, without any authority from Congress to do so. The coalition’s brief outlines major legal and economic concerns with the rule, arguing that EPA has trampled on the rights of states to determine their own energy mix and implement environmental standards in a manner tailed to their own circumstances.

EPA is requiring Texas to reduce its electricity sector carbon emissions rate 32.9% by 2030. An independent analysis by NERA Economic Consulting has projected that this will increase state electricity prices by an average of 13%, and up to 18% in peak years. Currently, electricity rates in Texas are less than 8.77 cents per kilowatt-hour,about 13.4% the national average.

By prematurely and unnecessarily forcing power plants to close, the suit claims the EPA’s regulation will result in higher costs for electricity and all the goods and services that depend on it, which means less money remaining for health care, food, education and other critical needs.

According to a news release by the Longview Chamber, this is expected to be a landmark case that could shape Texas’s energy and economic future.

A decision in the case is likely to be issued by the appeals court later this year. From there, the challenge is expected to make its way to the Supreme Court, which has ordered EPA to halt all implementation and enforcement actions on the rule until it has the opportunity to consider the case.