The West Virginia Coal Association has echoed West Virginia Attorney Patrick Morrisey’s request for the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s power plant rules.

President Chris Hamilton, who has said the EPA rules are “specifically designed” to force the state’s nine coal-fired power plants to close, said his organization is also calling on the Supreme Court to issue an emergency stay so other legal challenges can play out.

“Our utilities, and ultimately the public, shouldn’t be forced to waste hundreds of millions of ratepayer dollars to attempt to comply with a rule that ignores the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in West Virginia v. EPA,” Hamilton said.

Morrisey announced Tuesday that West Virginia would join 26 other states in filing motions with the high court requesting a stay. The move came just days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a request to block the rules.

The attorney general also cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in West Virginia v. EPA.

“The landmark West Virginia v. EPA is clear that Congress placed real limits on what the EPA can do, and we will ensure those limits are upheld,” Morrisey said.

The EPA’s suite of final rules, first released at the end of April, include requirements for existing coal-fired and new natural-gas-fired power plants to control 90% of their carbon pollution.

The agency said the rules are intended “to protect all communities from pollution and improve public health without disrupting the delivery of reliable electricity.”

Implementing the rules will negatively impact both West Virginia and the nation, Hamilton said.

“West Virginians will lose jobs. Americans will continue to pay increasingly more expensive power bills,” he said. “Our nation’s electric system will become even more unreliable. And energy security in the United States will become more dependent on foreign countries and potentially foreign adversaries.”

As of July 11, West Virginia’s coal industry employed a total of 66,899 workers, according to data from the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety & Training. The figure includes: 10,123 underground miners; 2,593 surface miners; 589 quarry employees; 1,617 prep plant employees; and 51,997 “independent contractors.”

At the beginning of June, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., was joined by 43 Senate colleagues in introducing a formal challenge to the EPA rules through the Congressional Review Act.

“With this Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval, every member of Congress will have the opportunity to protect America’s energy future, heed the warnings of our nation’s electric grid operators and adhere to the precedent set by the Supreme Court,” Capito said.

Shortly after the EPA released the final rules package, Gov. Jim Justice held an event at Independence Hall in Wheeling, where he was joined by a group of coal miners.

“The EPA and White House’s tone is clear: West Virginia doesn’t matter,” Justice said. “We are being told to close our facilities and send workers home without considering the economic impact. All West Virginians need to support our miners right now.”