End EPA Abuse Act would ensure agency does not expand its authority beyond Congressional intent

Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) introduced the End EPA Abuse Act today, a bill to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from promulgating Clean Air Act regulations that go beyond the authority granted to the agency by Congress.

The legislation specifically prohibits regulations that reflect some of the agency’s worst abuses in recent years. This covers regulations that seek to require power plants to change fuel sources, restrict the use or sale of gas-powered vehicles, undermine the electrical grid’s reliability, or require entities to use technology that is economically or practically infeasible. There is also a catch-all provision that ensures other significant expansions of authority that go beyond the intent of Congress are prohibited.

Director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment Daren Bakst said:

“The EPA is supposed to be focused on environmental protection, not on trying to stretch the Clean Air Act to change the very nature of our economy. Yet this is exactly what has been happening in recent years. Not long ago, people would have been thought of as wacky if they claimed the EPA would try to use the Clean Air Act to kill off gas-powered cars or try and change how the country produces electricity. But this is exactly what the agency has been doing.

“The End EPA Abuse Act establishes much-needed guardrails on the EPA. The bill is a means by which Congress would be reasserting its power while still allowing the EPA to do its job to protect the environment. The only thing the bill prohibits is the greatest abuses that common sense tells us Congress never authorized in the first place. Sen. Lee and Rep. Clyde should be commended for introducing this critical reform bill.”

More from CEI:

• Modernizing the EPA: A Blueprint for Congress
• Bakst for the Washington Examiner: Congress needs to end regulation without representation