West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey
CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey has joined a coalition of 25 states in filing a brief opposing lawsuits that would impose massive liability on energy companies based on allegations of climate change.
Three local governments in Maryland seek to use their courts to regulate the production, sale and use of oil and gas anywhere in the world. Filed in the Supreme Court of Maryland, the Alabama-led brief urges dismissal of the three cases, which McCuskey’s office says pose a direct threat to West Virginia’s sovereignty and economic security.
“We finally have common sense driving energy policy on the national level, so now, these radical state and local governments are stepping in to continue the war on coal,” McCuskey said. “We cannot allow this to happen. I am proud to stand with this coalition to defend our energy producers and to protect the energy independence of this great country.”
Alabama AG Steve Marshall, who spearheaded the brief, agrees.
“Maryland law cannot control energy production and environmental policies in Alabama,” he said in a press statement. “Baltimore’s concerns about emissions cross state lines, creating a federal issue that must be resolved federally, not by cities and counties seeking to line their pockets.
“One state or local government cannot impose its environmental agenda on any other state as a matter of constitutional law. These cases must be dismissed.”
In the brief, the coalition says “Maryland law cannot resolve an interstate dispute without breaking fundamental principles of federalism as articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
It says attempts to regulate the global atmosphere invade the basic power of every other state to regulate for the health and wellbeing of their own citizens.
West Virginia joined the Alabama-led brief with Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
