Brady PieperThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is unveiling a wave of 31 historic policy considerations. The agency said the goal is to boost domestic energy production, spark the automotive industry and lower the cost of living.
“EPA will be reconsidering many suffocating rules that restrict nearly every sector of our economy and cost Americans trillions of dollars,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said.
The EPA says it will continue to advance environmental goals while prioritizing the deregulation of several existing federal initiatives to grow the manufacturing and energy sectors, reduce the cost of living and create jobs, especially in the auto industry.
Critics of deregulation argue that such moves could undermine efforts to reduce emissions and address the growing threat of climate change. They warn that rolling back power plant regulations, for example, could increase greenhouse gas emissions and worsen air quality, especially in low-income and minority communities.
Under new executive direction, the agency will work to advance the Trump-Vance administration’s goal of unleashing coal-fired, oil and gas energy, as well as revitalizing American car manufacturing.
As a main priority of the new administration, the EPA will reconsider several power-sector related regulations to reduce federal compliance costs and hindrances for production. The agency’s new considerations will seek to reverse climate change laws that increase the price of energy for Americans, according to the agency.
These power and energy reconsiderations include:
- Regulations on power plants through the Clean Power Plan 2.0, which set carbon cutting goals for fossil-fuel-fired plants.
- OOOO b/c, also known as the Methane Rule, which implements emissions regulations on the oil and gas industry.
- Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program.
- Limitations, guidelines and standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Industry.
- Wastewater regulations for coal power plants.
These regulations, introduced under the previous administration, were designed to curb carbon emissions and reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuel industries.
As part of this energy effort, the EPA will evaluate regulations against the oil and gas industry, potentially easing restrictions on exploration and production. These regulatory reviews will loosen rules that had previously limited the use of certain technologies, impacting sectors like food production and semiconductor manufacturing.
For the automotive industries, the agency will pursue several new initiatives to boost economic opportunities, create jobs and repeal previous administration’s regulations on automotive production.
The agency will act to revitalize the automotive industry by reworking existing regulations that shifted toward electric vehicle manufacturing. EPA expects this move will reduce compliance costs for automakers to focus on innovation and production.
Several of the EPA’s remaining automotive reconsiderations are as follows:
- Light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicle restrictions and existing electric vehicle mandates.
- The 2009 Endangerment Finding and resulting regulations and actions. The finding identified greenhouse gases as a threat to public health and vehicles as a contributor to climate change, creating the basis for the Clean Air Act.
- Multiple National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for domestic energy and manufacturing sectors.
- Risk Management Program Rule
- Tech Transition Rule
In a move toward what the administration is calling “cooperative federalism,” the EPA will scale back federal mandates and work more closely with state and tribal authorities. Initially, the EPA’s actions will end the Good Neighbor Plan, which had expanded federal control over air quality regulations in multiple states.
State municipalities and tribal governments will also be included in EPA’s future efforts, according to the announcement. Following the repeal of the Good Neighbor Plan, the agency says it plans to work with states and tribes to resolve a backlog of State Implementation Plans and Tribal Implementation Plans, which are mandated by the federal Clean Air Act.
The EPA has made all 31 regulatory actions available publicly, and they can be found here. Notably, the proposed actions will likely take months or years to consider and fully implement into existing policy and regulations.
Image by digifly840 from Pixabay
