Mike Nasi Joins Texas and West Virginia Attorney Generals to Discuss Clean Power Plan

September 27, 2016 | Speaking Engagements



Jackson Walker partner Mike Nasi joined Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey to discuss the Clean Power Plan rules in advance of their argument before the D.C. Circuit.

Paxton, Morrissey, and Nasi pointed to the fact that the plan usurps state authority and that this interpretation of the Clean Air Act is a “power grab.”

Law360 recently wrote that Nasi called the setup “coercive federalism,” saying the EPA has already baked assumptions into the limitations that would favor generational changes like shutting down coal-fired power plants in favor of natural gas or other kinds of plants.

According to Nase, the EPA has “cloaked the illegality of this rule in the theory that states have flexibility.”

It has been settled law since the 1960s that regulation of an intrastate electrical grid is “explicitly a state function,” according to Nasi, and in any case, the authority to federally regulate power falls not to the EPA but to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The case is West Virginia et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency et al., case number 15-1363*, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

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Austin partner Mike Nasi is nationally recognized for his experience in Clean Air Act issues relating to electric power generation and steel manufacturing and recycling. He has been practicing before state and federal environmental and energy agencies and appellate courts for more than 23 years.


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Michael J. Nasi
Partner, Austin

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