The House is slated to vote this week on a proposal that mandates at least a years-long delay of two major air pollution rules and, senior Democrats say, badly weakens EPA’s ability to limit mercury and other air toxics from power plants.
It will be among the highest-profile battles to date over Environmental Protection Agency power plant standards that Republicans have made a pillar of their campaign against Obama administration regulations that they allege are holding back the economy.
{mosads}The House Rules Committee on Tuesday laid the groundwork for this week’s debate on the TRAIN Act, a bill that mandates interagency economic analyses of EPA rules, and delays two rules on power plant emissions.
The Rules panel decided Tuesday to allow floor debate on an amendment sponsored by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) that would add minimum delays for the rules for years beyond what the underlying bill already requires, and force EPA to rewrite them.
One of the rules is the recently finalized Cross-State Air Pollution Rule to cut power plant emissions that blow across state lines and worsen smog and particulate pollution. The other is an upcoming regulation setting standards for power plant emissions of mercury and other air toxics.
Whitfield is a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and chairs its Energy and Power subcommittee. The amendment and the bill are available here.
Rep. Henry Waxman (Calif.), the committee’s top Democrat, and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) wrote to Whitfield and full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) Tuesday asking them to abandon the Whitfield amendment.
Waxman and Rush — who is the ranking Democrat on Whitfield’s panel — allege his plan makes “radical” changes to the Clean Air Act’s air toxics program that have never been vetted in the committee.
They note that current law requires EPA to set standards for each regulated pollutant that are no less stringent than the average emissions achieved by the best-performing 12 percent of sources. But Whitfield’s plan alters this approach.
They write:
The new language in Chairman Whitfield’s amendment would require EPA to identify the 12% of sources in a source category that are best-performing “in the aggregate” for all toxic pollutants. This approach is completely untested and would require EPA to make subjective judgments about the value of reducing each different regulated toxic pollutant. There is no standard by which EPA can determine whether a plant that emits more carcinogens but less neurotoxins is better or worse performing than a plant that emits fewer carcinogens but more neurotoxins.
Their letter argues the Whitfield plan would weaken the air pollution rules in other ways, and notes it “significantly extends” the bill’s minimum time before the regulations can come into force.
The amendment prevents a rewritten Cross-State rule from being finalized for roughly four years at a minimum, and then provides another three years for implementation. It would also prevent rewritten power plant air toxics rules from coming into force for over a half-dozen years at a minimum.
“This approach to legislating conflicts with our committee’s proud history of working together to address serious air pollution problems, and it makes a mockery of the committee hearing process,” the letter states.
But a GOP Energy and Commerce Committee aide defended the Whitfield plan.
“This amendment provides much-needed regulatory relief to America’s power sector. EPA’s current Utility [Maximum Achievable Control Technology] rule and cross-state air pollution rule will devastate our nation’s power sector and lead to plant closures across the country,” the aide said in an email. “These rules will destroy jobs, raise energy prices and put our nation’s electric reliability at risk. These changes will ensure emissions standards are workable and achievable so as not to put jobs at risk.”
Whitfield’s amendment is among several up for debate this week. A final vote on the TRAIN Act — which stands for Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation — is expected Friday.
The bill would create a new Commerce Department-led interagency panel called the Committee for the Cumulative Analysis of Regulations that Impact Energy and Manufacturing in the United States.
It would review various EPA rules to gauge their effect on U.S. economic competitiveness, energy prices, employment and other areas.
This post was updated at 8:46 a.m.