Feb. 15—West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is again going after the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) on the agency expanding its regulatory authority.

Morrisey joined a coalition with 23 other state attorneys general to send a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan in January expressing concerns about a proposed rule that would "establish new standards of performance under the Clean Air Act for new and modified sources of methane in the oil and natural gas sector."

The supplemental proposed rule, Standards of Performance for New, Reconstructed and Modified Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Oil and Natural Gas Sector Climate Review, goes "far beyond its statutory authority and would impose unnecessary costs on the energy industry, all while disregarding the role of the states in regulating methane emissions," the coalition said.

"It's either the EPA missed our letter or ignored our concerns," Morrisey said, writing in the letter that rather than "listen to our advice, EPA has doubled down—proposing a rule that vastly increases the EPA's authority while imposing compliance obligations even stricter than the ones described in the Proposed Rule."

Morrisey calls this a "job-killing oil and natural gas rule proposed by the agency" and the letter highlighted how the EPA's supplemental proposal "exacerbates the flaws of the proposed rule, which incorrectly reinstates legal deficiencies of the 2016 Clean Air Act rule, reflects an unbalanced view of EPA's prior regulations and improperly preserves duplicative and costly regulation."

Morrisey said experts estimate that implementation of the rule under the EPA's "preferred two-year timetable could cost that state's environmental regulatory agency more than $278 million each year."

West Virginia is a leader in natural gas production, he said.

"The natural gas, pipeline and construction sectors provide thousands of jobs to hard-working West Virginians. Reintroducing unnecessary and costly regulations would jeopardize those jobs."

Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com

Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com