Republicans seek to ease EPA permitting

A new Republican bill aims to ease the burden of obtaining air pollution permits from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for manufacturing facilities.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) said their legislation introduced Thursday would help the country’s energy and manufacturing sectors move forward in a way that is difficult now.

{mosads}“The EPA insists on holding America back with its onerous regulations and deeply flawed permitting process for new and expanding manufacturing facilities,” Capito said in a statement.

“In order to tap into the full potential of our vital energy and manufacturing sectors, we must establish accountability measures that protect American manufacturing jobs,” she said.

Scalise sponsored similar legislation last year that passed the House.

It would require the EPA to write guidance for manufacturers every time it updates air quality rules in order to help them figure out how to comply.

The EPA would have to publicize how many new construction permits it issues under the Clean Air Act and how long the approvals take, and report to Congress on what steps the agency is taking to expedite the process.

The bill “holds the EPA accountable and makes the federal government more effective and efficient by cutting red tape that is currently choking millions of dollars in manufacturing investments,” Scalise said in the statement.

“Our bill would implement much-needed reforms at the EPA to fix a broken permitting process that is holding innovators back from creating thousands of good jobs here in America,” he said.

The White House threatened last year to veto that version of the bill, saying it “would impose arbitrary and unnecessary requirements that could weaken the public health and environmental protections of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and would increase uncertainty for businesses and states.” It did not go anywhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.