House Republicans Target EPA Methane Rule Under Review Act

Bloomberg BNA discusses with William Yeatman the House using the Congressional Review Act to target an EPA rule. 

House Republicans for the first time this congressional session employed the Congressional Review Act to target an Environmental Protection Agency rule. The rule is aimed at reducing methane emissions from new, modified and reconstructed oil and gas wells.

If passed by Congress and signed after Donald Trump becomes president, the joint resolution of disapproval ( H.J. Res. 22) introduced by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) on Jan. 6 would negate the EPA rule and bar the agency from creating a rule that is substantially similar to it in the future.

However, it isn’t clear if the EPA sent the rule to Congress or published it in the Federal Register in the timespan spelled out in the CRA. This begins to pull at the thread of several unknowns about the practical aspects of the review act.

“There’s no experience—no case law—that interprets this act,” William Yeatman, a senior fellow for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Bloomberg BNA.

Read the full articlea at Bloomberg BNA.