WASHINGTON, D.C. – On June 24, President Donald Trump signed legislation proposed by Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) overturning a Catch-22 policy imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency during the Biden Era.
“The rule put forward under the former administration shut the door on progress,” according to Curtis. “It told companies that, no matter how much they invest to reduce harmful emissions, they would still be punished with permanent red tape.
“That’s not good science,” he added. “It’s not good governance and its certainly isn’t good for the environment.”
The target of Curtis’ proposal was the Biden EPA’s policy regarding the reclassification of some industries from major sources of emissions to area sources of emissions.
Members of Curtis’ staff here in Washington explain that major sources are industrial facilities – like chemical plants, refineries or large factories – that emit high levels of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and are subject to strict pollution control standards. On the other hand, area sources are facilities that emit smaller amounts of HAPs and generally have less strict pollution control standards.
Ideally, the intent of any industry would be to install enough pollution control technology to transition from being a major source under EPA standards to an area source, thus achieving cost savings. But EPA bureaucrats during the Biden administration required that any industry that made that transition still remained subject to the strict major source pollution controls if their facility emitted certain pollutants.
By effectively making it impossible for many facilities to truly escape the major source standards even after making significant emission reductions, Curtis argues, the Biden administration failed to reward proactive efforts on the part of industry to reduce pollution.
The Congressional Review Act is a legislative mechanism that allows lawmakers to overturn certain federal agency rules with a simple majority vote in both chambers of Congress.
Most importantly, a CRA resolution bars the federal agency from reimposing a disapproved policy unless the policy is specifically authorized by a subsequent law.
Under the Congressional Review Act, Curtis’ joint resolution of disapproval was passed by the Senate with a vote of 52 to 46 and by the House with a margin of 216 to 212.
By overturning the EPA policy, Curtis’ proposal will remove burdensome red tape on U.S. energy producers and other industrial facilities while restoring incentives to reduce pollution.