CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has sent a letter to the leadership of the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee opposing the nomination of Janet Gaven McCabe to be deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Ms. McCabe has twice been nominated for important positions at EPA, once by President Obama when the Senate was led by Senator Harry Reid, and again by President Obama when the Senate was led by Senator McConnell,” Attorney General Morrisey wrote. “In each case, the result was the same—her nomination was not confirmed and was returned to the President at the close of each Congress. These were the correct decisions. Her prior nominations were rightly not confirmed because Ms. McCabe was a key architect of the Clean Power Plan. For that same reason and many more, I am urging the Senate to once again not confirm Ms. McCabe.”
The Attorney General’s letter contends the Obama-era Power Plan was wrong on policy and thus wrong for West Virginia and the nation. The letter further indicates that a vote for McCabe is a vote for that misguided regulation.
Attorney General Morrisey challenged the Power Plan on the day it was published, blocked its enforcement with a historic and unprecedented victory at the U.S. Supreme Court and continued to lead a broad coalition to ensure its repeal.
West Virginia’s historic victory at the Supreme Court in February 2016 stopped the Obama-era regulation in its tracks and provided time for the Trump administration to correct the attempted overreach of its predecessor.
The Attorney General maintains federal law sets clear limits on the EPA’s authority. He insists the Attorney General’s Office will continue to work vigorously to enforce those limits and ensure that West Virginian and American energy and manufacturing jobs are protected from unlawful federal overreach by the Biden administration.