WASHINGTON (WV News) — Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is continuing to push back against a set of proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules she has said would force the closure of West Virginia’s coal-fired power plants.

Capito recently teamed with Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., to ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to study how the EPA’s power plant performance and emission standards would impact the nation’s electricity grids.

“The proposal presents unjustifiable claims about the future availability of technologies — including carbon capture, clean hydrogen and the related infrastructure — used to power our electric grids,” Capito and Barrasso wrote in a joint letter.

The EPA’s proposal — titled “New Source Performance Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; Emission Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Existing Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; and Repeal of the Affordable Clean Energy Rule” — was released at the end of May.

The proposal would require coal- and natural-gas-fired electrical generation facilities to capture or dramatically reduce carbon emissions in the years ahead.

The proposal would impact gas-fired combustion turbines, coal-, oil- and gas-fired steam generating units and certain existing gas-fired combustion turbines.

The EPA has said the proposed standards would result in reduced pollution and improved health outcomes.

“By proposing new standards for fossil-fuel-fired power plants, EPA is delivering on its mission to reduce harmful pollution that threatens people’s health and well-being,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said.

Capito and Barrasso’s letter asks FERC to hold “a series of technical conferences to assess the potential impact of the proposed rule on electric reliability.”

“EPA clearly lacks the expertise to project accurately the impact of its rulemaking on electric reliability without deeply informed and engaged participation from FERC and those subject to its jurisdiction that are charged with the obligation to generate and deliver electricity in order to meet continuous demand for electric service,” Capito and Barrasso said.

In mid-June, the EPA announced it had extended the public comment period on the new rules by 15 days, with the comment period now set to end Aug. 8 instead of July 24.

The length of the extension was far less time than stakeholders had requested, according to Capito.

“I’m concerned that the EPA could only give us another 15 days,” she said during a press briefing. “We asked for measurably more time, and so did a lot of stakeholders — both on the environmental side and also on the power side.”

On the day the EPA’s proposed rules were announced, Gov. Jim Justice said he planned to “urge” state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to lead a legal challenge against them.

“Without any question, I will absolutely urge our attorney general — Patrick will do a good job with regard to this,” Justice said. “I will urge anybody and everybody to challenge through our court system or whatever it may be to absolutely see that this doesn’t come to pass.”