WASHINGTON, DC - Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA), and Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY) today sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy seeking further information concerning apparent efforts by the agency to prevent the codification of an important provision of the Clean Air Act.
Based on documents introduced at a House Judiciary Committee markup earlier this week, it appears that EPA officials may have inhibited the nonpartisan congressional Office of Law Revision Counsel (OLRC) as it sought to fulfill its responsibility to codify the language used in the Clean Air Act and other statutory provisions. The members write, “This correspondence indicates that the OLRC has been undertaking a systematic, multi-year process and that the agency has declined for almost seven years to review the codification bills submitted by the OLRC to the Judiciary Committee (and posted on the OLRC website). During this time period the agency was developing its proposed (Clean Air Act section) 111(d) rule for existing power plants. From this correspondence it appears that the agency may have been inhibiting a statutorily prescribed process because it would undermine the agency’s legal arguments supporting its 111(d) rulemaking."
The EPA’s section 111(d) rule has been subject to extensive oversight and legislative activity before the Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Energy and Power.
See Also
* Letter from EPA Regarding the Codification of Clean Air Act Provision
* Letter to EPA Administrator McCarthy
