Comer Requests Docs from Biden Admin. Officials Which Cast Doubt on Viability of Sweeping Power Plant Regulations

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is requesting more information from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after comments from unknown Biden Administration authors in documents obtained by the Committee call into question whether the EPA met the requisite standards for new emissions rules. In the documents, Biden Administration officials provided comments on an internal draft of the EPA’s new proposed power plant emissions standards which cast doubt as to whether the EPA’s proposed rule is viable. In a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, Chairman Comer requests the EPA provide the Committee versions of the documents that identify the comments’ authorship.

“The Clean Air Act enables EPA to develop new emissions standards when appropriate, but it also directs the agency to consider whether those standards are achievable at a reasonable cost and to determine if the technology required for compliance—called the best system of emission reduction (BSER)—is adequately demonstrated. […] Given the nature of the above comments and the Rule’s potential impact on fossil fuel-fired power plants—which produce 60 percent of U.S. electricity generation—it is imperative that the Committee and the American public are made aware of the Administration’s apparent doubt concerning the legality of its own rulemaking,” Chairman Comer wrote.

The Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs held a hearing with Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator at EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation Joseph Goffman on June 21, 2023 titled “Cleaning the Air: Examining the Environmental Protection Agency’s Proposed Emissions Standards,” to bring transparency to the EPA’s proposed emissions standards which will force a radical transformation of major sectors of the economy. At the hearing, lawmakers warned the EPA should not be operating outside its rulemaking authority.

“The October 20, 2023, production alone contains 606 comments that identify extensive problems with the Rule. […] Further, the correspondence between these parties from within the Administration seems to indicate that despite concerns held by any or all of these entities that the NSPS Rule cannot lawfully be promulgated, EPA has brazenly decided to move forward with the Rule,” continued Chairman Comer.

Read the letter to EPA Administrator Regan here.