WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., are among 47 Senate colleagues and 44 House members who joined an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the petitioners, including the state of Mississippi, in the pending case West Virginia, et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency.

In this case challenging overreaching Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rulemaking to restructure the nation’s power sector, the lawmakers agree EPA acted outside its congressionally-authorized authority by issuing significantly overreaching rules—namely the Clean Power Plan—to attempt to transform the nation’s power sector through emissions regulations under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act.

In their amicus brief, the lawmakers stress:

“If Congress had intended to give the EPA such sweeping authority to transform an entire sector of our economy, Congress would have done so explicitly.  An administrative agency like the EPA may decide issues of such vast economic and political significance only when the agency can point to ‘clear congressional authorization.’ …

“Section 111(d) provides limited authority for the EPA to prescribe regulations in certain narrow circumstances. Section 111(d) does not provide the EPA with the authority to compel a substantial and costly shift in electric power generation across the entire nation.

“Decisions regarding greenhouse gas emissions and the power sector are major policy questions with vast economic and political significance.  Only elected members of Congress, representing the will of the people, may decide these questions.  The EPA’s attempt to issue expansive regulations cannot stand in the absence of clear congressional authorization.

“Congress knows how to address greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, Congress has decided to pass transformative laws that incentivize reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from a wide range of industries, including the electric power sector.”

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., led the amicus brief, which is available here