Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
8/2/13
The House of Representatives passed a bill Aug. 1 that would require the Department of Energy to sign off on whether major energy-related Environmental Protection Agency regulations could impact economic growth. The “Energy Consumers Relief Act” was approved 232-181, largely along party lines. The measure, which is not expected to be taken up in the Democrat-controlled Senate, has already received a White House veto threat. It would require EPA to submit a report to Congress and the Energy Secretary detailing a rule’s cost and impacts on energy prices and employment ahead of promulgation if it has an estimated regulatory cost of more than $1 billion. The Secretary of Energy would then be required to determine how each rule would impact energy prices, fuel diversity and local electric reliability and decide whether the regulation could have “significant adverse effects” on the economy. If that is found to be the case, DOE could block a rulemaking from promulgation.
Lawmakers shot down amendments from Democrats that would have effectively blocked DOE’s role in the bill and bared the measure from applying to air and water-related regulations. Republicans did, however, pass an amendment that would require EPA to make all data and documents relied upon by the Agency to develop regulations publicly available. Lawmakers also approved a provision from Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) that would bar EPA from using recently-revised social cost of carbon estimates in its cost-benefit analyses until Congress reviews the issue. Republicans have sharply criticized the intergovernmental coalition that quietly increased the SCC estimates earlier this summer for not considering public input during the process. During a hearing on the issue last month, the White House’s top regulatory czar said that the SCC changes do not constitute a rulemaking, and are subsequently not subject to public comment.
House Approves REINS Act
The House also passed a similar bill Aug. 2 on a vote of 232 to 183 that would require Congress to approve every executive branch rulemaking with an annual impact of $100 million or more on the economy. The White House issued a veto threat of the “Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act” this week, saying that it would impose an “unprecedented requirement” that is a “radical departure from the longstanding separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.” The bill would “delay and, in many cases, thwart implementation of statutory mandates and execution of duly-enacted laws, create business uncertainty, undermine much-needed protections of the American public and cause unnecessary confusion,” the White House said in a Statement of Administration Policy.
