House GOP, Dems spar over EPA's regulatory impact on companies

House Republicans on Wednesday said legislation limiting regulation on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is needed to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from imposing de facto taxes on U.S. companies, while Democrats warned limiting the EPA would set back decades of progress on the environment.

The debate took place in the context of the rule for H.R. 910, the Energy Tax Prevention Act, which would prevent the EPA from regulating GHG. Republicans see this as a needed step given the EPA's effort to do through regulation what Democrats cannot pass through Congress, such as a cap-and-trade policy.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said in his opening remarks in the debate that the Clean Air Act should not be used as a basis for EPA regulations on GHG and that only Congress should have this right. Sessions said GHG regulations would cost hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming years and for that reason, the bill would help save jobs.

"It's a jobs-protection bill," he said.

Democrats recoiled at these arguments — and even the title of the bill — by arguing the EPA does not have the authority to tax companies. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) raised a parliamentary inquiry on whether Republicans had the right to name the bill in a way that implies the EPA has the power to tax.

Republicans countered that the EPA can place indirect taxes on companies by tightening regulatory rules that end up driving costs higher for companies.

Democrats also rejected Republican arguments that the EPA is planning to tax cattle based on their methane emissions. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) said this issue has been debunked. "It is a false accusation with regard to livestock," he said.

But Sessions said the EPA's website discusses this issue.

"This EPA is trying to talk about methane produced by livestock," he said. "They're going to blame it on cattle. They're going to tax cattle, they're going to tax the output because that's what they're proposing."

More broadly, Polis said Republican efforts to pass the bill are "nothing less … than a full assault on four decades of progress in protecting Americans from environmental dangers." After a 2 p.m. vote on the rule, the House was expected to debate the bill and then a dozen Democratic amendments on Wednesday before voting on final passage.