Morrisey Hopes Trump Seeks Broad Rollback Of EPA Power Plant GHG Rules

West Virginia Attorney General (AG) Patrick Morrisey (R), one of the most ardent critics of EPA's power plant greenhouse gas (GHG) rules, hopes that an executive order President Donald Trump is slated to sign will seek a broad rollback of the agency's rules for both new and existing sources, suggesting some uncertainty about the scope of the order. The Trump administration has not been as vocal about its plans for the NSPS and has not yet indicated it would change course in the pending litigation over that rule, which is slated to go to oral argument in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in April. [...]they could be considering whether to bar the use of section 111 -- the section of the Clean Air Act EPA used to write the rules -- as a means of addressing GHGs, or they could be considering whether to try to narrow the CPP's scope to actions inside the fenceline of coal-fired power plants rather than including electricity system-wide options like generation shifting to gas and renewables as the Obama EPA did. [...]Bloomberg Government notes that if the administration decides not to regulate GHGs, it could create tort liability for power plant operators given Supreme Court precedent in American Electric Power (AEP) v. Connecticut that held there is a private right of action over GHG emissions absent EPA regulation. [...]nervous coal plant owners may wonder, could they then face private lawsuits because EPA action is foreclosed?" the article says...