Wyoming is suing to stop the Biden administration’s new coal pollution rules

Wyoming joined more than two dozen states this week in filing two lawsuits in federal court to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other harmful pollutants from coal- and natural gas-fired power plants.

The lawsuits allege that the EPA exceeded its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants when it issued four sweeping rules in April, including one requiring a 90% reduction in smokestack carbon dioxide emissions by 2032.

While the EPA’s emissions reduction rules and 2032 deadline closely align with Wyoming’s self-imposed mandate that requires some coal-fired power plants in the state to install carbon capture technologies, Gov. Mark Gordon said the EPA and the Biden administration have simply gone too far. .

“The sole purpose appears to be to destroy Wyoming’s fossil fuel industry by further taxing our power plants, raising costs for consumers and threatening the stability of our nation’s electric grid,” Gordon said in a prepared statement Thursday.

In a lawsuit filed this week, Wyoming joined 24 other states in claiming that the EPA’s new rules ignore a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the federal government’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from limit power stations.

In a second lawsuit, Wyoming and 22 other states alleged that the EPA’s new rules unlawfully target emissions from coal-fired power plants without properly justifying the health benefits or economic impact of the rules on coal-dependent communities.

“The Biden administration’s EPA appears determined to use unlawful regulations to continue its attacks on Wyoming’s nuclear industries,” Gordon said.

What’s at stake?

Wyoming supplies about 40% of the coal used to generate electricity in the U.S., and the industry has long served as a major employer and revenue source for the state. For example, the coal mines contributed about $650 million in taxes, royalties and fees and employed more than 5,000 workers in 2019, according to the Wyoming Mining Association.

A large portion of those coal revenues go toward funding primary and secondary education in Wyoming.

Wyoming has lost nearly half of its coal production since 2008, and much of the revenue that comes with it. Coal and electricity market analysts say the EPA’s new rules would accelerate the downward trajectory of the state’s coal industry, resulting in layoffs and mine closures before the rules take effect in 2032.

Some coal mines in the state are already facing headwinds that could look like extinction levels even without the EPA’s new rules, as utilities continue to rely more and more on natural gas and renewable energy sources.

Wyoming’s odds

The EPA’s “power plant” rules are intended to fulfill President Joe Biden’s pledge to address man-made climate change, and to reduce disease and other negative environmental impacts from coal pollution, the agency said.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who visited Gordon in Wyoming last year, also noted that his agency designed the new pollution reduction rules to match claims — also from Wyoming — that carbon capture technologies are a viable path for the maintenance of coal-fired power stations.

The federal agency, even though the scope of its authority is in question, has a legal obligation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, said Shannon Anderson, an attorney for the Sheridan-based landowners group Powder River Basin Resource Council.

“Carbon dioxide has long been proven to be a greenhouse gas pollutant and dangerous to public health and safety, which is why it is a regulated pollutant,” Anderson told WyoFile on Thursday. “It is also a matter of hypocrisy when the governor’s office and the industry on the one hand argue that our state utilities should look at carbon capture and charge ratepayers for that research and development, and on the other side should challenge the EPAs. claim that it is possible. I mean, those views cannot be reconciled.”