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Appropriators move bill sending strong ‘message’ to EPA
House appropriators on Thursday morning approved a bill slashing funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) called the “poster child” for President Obama’s regulatory overreach.
Rogers and Environment subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) made clear that through funding cuts and policy riders they are trying to rein in the EPA, as the subcommittee reported the 2012 Interior and Environment bill out to the full committee. The bill was reported on a party line roll call vote.
“The EPA’s unrestrained effort to regulate greenhouse gases, and the pursuit of an overly aggressive regulatory agenda, are signs of an agency that has lost its bearings,” Simpson said. He called it the “scariest agency in the federal government.”
Committee Democrats lambasted the bill as a “dump truck” of gifts to special interests and vowed that most of the provisions will be blocked by the Senate and President Obama as the 2012 spending process comes to a head in the fall.
Simpson took pains to defend a provision that blocks any new listings under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). He said that the move was intended to prod the authorizing committees to reform the act, something they have not done in 20 years. He said no Republicans want the act completely repealed.
“What we are trying to do is put pressure on all parties … to come to the table to reauthorize the ESA,” Simpson said.
Committee ranking member Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) called this an excuse for an ideological assault on wildlife and noted that the act was signed into law by President Nixon.
“Where are the Nixon Republicans?” he asked. Democrats plan to offer amendments at the full committee markup.
It provides $7.1 billion for the EPA, well below the agency’s current-year funding of $8.7 billion and $1.8 billion less than the White House is seeking for fiscal 2012.
Simpson said that he is not “necessarily” a climate change denier, but that the Government Accountability Office has found disarray in climate change programs that justifies a 22 percent, $83 million cut to them.
One policy rider would prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and refineries for one year.
The bill would speed up air pollution permits for Shell Oil and other companies seeking to drill in Arctic waters off Alaska’s coast. The bill sets new deadlines for EPA action on offshore air permit applications, prevents challenges to EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board and eases air pollution standards for offshore projects.
Another provision targeting EPA would prevent the agency from regulating a coal combustion byproduct called coal ash as a hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The provision reflects the goals of a bipartisan group of coal-state lawmakers who want to prevent EPA from issuing tough rules regulating disposal of coal ash.
Another policy rider prevents federal regulators from moving forward with regulations intended to protect streams from mountaintop-removal coal mining.
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