Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
11/6/2015
Two Congressional Review Act resolutions introduced by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) against the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions regulations for new and existing coal-fired power plants were reported out of the House Energy and Commerce Energy and Power Subcommittee this week on a party-line vote. The markup served as a pulpit for subcommittee members to reiterate common arguments made for and against the regulations since they were proposed more than a year ago.
Panel Republicans argued that the EPA exceeded its authority in promulgating the rules, developed under Sections 111(b) and 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. The 111(b) regulation for new-build plants, the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), requires the use of partial carbon capture and storage on all new-build coal-fired power plants. The 111(d) regulation for existing plants, the Clean Power Plan, sets state-specific carbon reduction targets and requires states to develop action plans to meet those goals.
Whitfield, the subcommittee chairman, argued that “there is nothing in the Clean Air Act provisions used to justify the rules that suggest such sweeping agency actions are authorized. Indeed, the sheer sweep of these rules is unprecedented in the 45-year history of this statute.” He added, “Put plainly, if Congress wanted to authorize a comprehensive transformation of the way Americans produce, deliver, and use its electricity in order to address global warming it would have done so.”
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats expressed frustration at the continued attacks against the rule. “We’ve already wasted enough of the committee’s time attacking every step taken by this administration to address our dangerously changing climate,” full committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said at the markup. “Enough is enough, it’s time for Congress and this committee to move on,” he said later.
Members from both parties acknowledged that even if the resolutions make it through Congress, they are unlikely to get the president’s signature. That is of little consequence, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said. “It’s still a useful exercise because it shows the will as expressed by the majority — and the Republicans have 247 seats with one seat vacant — that the American people are not happy with President Obama’s climate change policy.”
A full committee markup of the resolutions has not yet been scheduled but is expected in the near future. Two similar Congressional Review Act resolutions have been introduced in the Senate but have not been scheduled for a subcommittee hearing or markup at this time.
