New Power Plant Rule Awaits Supreme Court Ruling, EPA Chief Says

The EPA will have a new standard to limit carbon emissions “ready to go as soon as the Supreme Court rules” on its authority to regulate in that space, agency head Michael Regan told lawmakers on Wednesday.

Regan previously promised a suite of tools to deal with emissions from power plants.

“We want to be sure that the rule that we design will fall within where the Supreme Court will land,” Regan told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee during a hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s fiscal 2023 budget request.

The case centers on the scope of EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, provided it considers cost, non-air impacts, and energy requirements.

Regan also said the EPA will propose by 2023 the next phase of standards for greenhouse gas emissions from model year 2027 passenger cars and light trucks.

“I urge you to put that front and center,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) “Finish it quickly, hand it in early, so that the market knows that there are going to be regulations.”

President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2023 budget plan would raise the EPA’s budget to $11.9 billion, its highest level ever. Included in that amount is $1.1 billion to improve air quality and reduce local pollution, $4 billion to upgrade drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, and $1.45 billion to address disadvantaged communities long suffering from pollution.

Critiques From the Left

Senate Republicans took aim during the hearing at the White House’s environmental agenda, calling it a drain on domestic energy production, a cause of higher energy prices, and a suite of decisions that have been cloaked in secrecy.

But Regan even fielded scrutiny from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), one of the chamber’s most vocal climate hawks, who grilled him for regulatory inaction on venting and flaring of methane emissions or carbon emissions from chemical plants, refineries, cement plants, metal plants, and paper mills.

“How long do you think you have?” Whitehouse asked.

Regan said the agency is working on regulating carbon emissions from a broad range of point sources, and that “we have to be honest about the state that the EPA found itself in when President Biden was elected.” The agency needs more resources to get its work done faster, and EPA staff are “working nights and weekends,” he said.

“I am damn proud of what this agency has done over the past year with the resources that we have,” Regan said, pointing to progress on rules addressing hydrofluorocarbons, methane, light duty vehicles, and heavy duty vehicles.

President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2023 budget plan asks for funding to hire 1,900 new employees. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the panel’s top Republican, expressed skepticism over that request, suggesting that the EPA already has enough staff.

‘It’s Damn Wrong’

Also during the hearing, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) took aim at the Biden administration’s focus on environmental justice, saying indigenous communities in his state are being hurt by policies that have curbed natural resource development.

“It’s a new smackdown by this administration, hurting my constituents, many of whom are indigenous, minority people,” Sullivan said. “It’s wrong. It’s damn wrong.”

Regan said the EPA’s budget asks for resources to “look at the disproportionate impact that pollution has caused many of these communities.”