Sen. Cramer Statement on West Virginia v. EPA Supreme Court Ruling

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, issued the following statement in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling on West Virginia v. EPA, in which North Dakota is a party, firmly establishing the State’s role as an equal partner to the federal government in regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants:

“Today’s ruling reaffirms Congress never intended the federal government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions for the states. The statute is clear. This is a win for democracy, cooperative federalism, the American people, and North Dakota.

“The Supreme Court decision reflects the separate, co-equal roles of our government. Important national policies must be debated and established through the democratic process by elected officials, not Washington bureaucrats. Nothing in the Clean Air Act allows the bureaucracy to overstep the State’s authority to determine how they generate electricity. Similarly, this case has far-reaching impacts on other EPA rules like WOTUS and Regional Haze as they are built on the same cooperative federalism model. 

“I tip my hat to late North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem for laying the groundwork for this landmark case seven years ago and North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley and North Dakota Special Assistant Attorney General Paul Seby for getting this across the finish line. Their vision and persistence reiterate North Dakota’s excellence and the bureaucracy’s mediocrity.

“When I hosted EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler in North Dakota, he promised all regulations would stand up in court. Today’s ruling goes to show Administrator Wheeler and the Trump Administration were absolutely right. I look forward to a new era of the Supreme Court which respects the tenants of congressional intent and cooperative federalism and I hope the Biden bureaucracy will stay within the confines of the law.”

Background:

This decision from the Supreme Court reversed the 2020 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. striking down the Trump EPA’s Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule, which accurately reflected Congress’ intent under Section 111d of the Clean Air Act to delegate primacy on the regulation of emissions from existing power plants to States.

The Obama EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which never went into effect because of a historic stay from the Supreme Court, would have stripped States of their right to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and imposed a draconian set of national requirements created by EPA bureaucrats. On the Clean Power Plan Senator Cramer said, “Not only was the Clean Power Plan illegal, it threatened to raise electricity bills, reduce grid reliability, and eliminate well-paying jobs.” The Clean Power Plan was an unprecedented power grab by EPA creating a national electrical grid regulator without any Congressional authorization and destroying a centuries-old system of State control over power generation. 

Senator Cramer penned an essay for the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy on restoring states’ rights and adhering to cooperative federalism in environmental policy. In the essay, Senator Cramer examines the Clean Air Act, specifically Section 111(d) and West Virginia v. EPA.

“The Obama Administration’s sweeping regulation was a major shift in policy with significant implications. A plain reading of Clean Air Act Section 111(d), or any other kind of reading, does not give the EPA the authority to singlehandedly restructure the entire energy sector of our economy. These decisions are best left to states, which are better situated to understand their own energy needs and resources than is the federal government,” wrote Senator Cramer.

“Federal overreach, combined with statutory language ripe for bureaucratic mischief, landed the EPA before the Supreme Court for more than a decade. While the Clean Air Act could have been written better, it is clear Congress never intended to overrule state authority,” continued Senator Cramer.

Click here to read the pre-publication version of the essay.