Eighth Circuit Grants Attorney General Bailey’s Request to Halt Biden’s Burdensome Ozone Restrictions

May 31, 2023, 10:45 AM by AG Bailey

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Today, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced that the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted his motion to stay President Biden's unlawful attempt to impose burdensome regulations that would hike the price of energy for Missourians across the state. The order prevents the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from imposing these regulations during the appeal.

"The court has thankfully put on hold the attempt by Biden's EPA to unlawfully expand the federal government's authority, displace Missouri's ability to set our own energy policy, and force Missouri consumers to pay higher prices," said Attorney General Bailey. "We will always stand in the gap to protect Missourians against the federal government's unconstitutional overreach."

The nation's primary air quality law, the Clean Air Act, explicitly provides states the primary right and responsibility to control emissions within their borders to satisfy national air quality standards. States satisfy their responsibility to control emissions under the CAA by submitting implementation plans to the EPA. Federal law requires that the EPA "shall approve" any state's implementation plan that satisfies the Clean Air Act's requirements.

The EPA violated this mandatory duty so it could justify imposing top-down, expensive federal regulations that would harm Missourians everywhere. Missouri spent considerable time and resources to craft a plan that satisfied the Clean Air Act, only for the EPA to ignore its statutory duty. After the deadline for the EPA to approve Missouri's plan had already expired, the EPA moved the goalposts and changed the standards to try to justify denying Missouri's plan. So, Missouri spent considerable resources to supplement its original plan to satisfy the EPA's purported "new" standards. Demonstrating it never actually intended to accept Missouri's plan, the EPA refused to consider Missouri's supplemental proposal and instead changed its standards again. Thus, the EPA attempted to impose top-down, expensive regulations that the EPA has no authority to impose and that would risk permanently shutting down power plants in Missouri.

Missouri's motion for the stay can be read here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/missouri-v-epa---motion-to-stay-sip-final-rule-(final).pdf?sfvrsn=c47484a_2

The Court's order can be read here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/order-denying-transfer-and-granting-stay.pdf?sfvrsn=f906a081_2

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