Energy and the Environment

Policy Accomplishments for 2011

Air Quality Regulation

Convinced the president to return EPA’s final reconsideration of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone to the agency and order the agency to stop moving forward with the reconsideration.
Persuaded EPA to retain the existing NAAQS for coarse particulate matter (i.e., farm dust) for five more years, rather than tightening them.
Persuaded EPA to make its final Boiler MACT rule governing industrial boiler air toxics emissions more reasonable and convinced the agency to make further revisions through a reconsideration of the rule.
Persuaded the president to issue an executive memorandum ordering EPA to provide additional time for electric utilities to comply with EPA’s Utility MACT regulation governing electric utility air toxics emissions.
Helped secure House passage of bipartisan legislation to prevent EPA regulation of farm dust.

Chemical Regulation

Helped galvanize an industry coalition opposing an EPA initiative to expand the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) inventory requirements, contrary to decades of policy and practice, through administrative and legislative advocacy and education.
Successfully advocated for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to apply Executive Order 13563 and stop EPA from violating the law and overturning more than 30 years of agency policy and practice by listing common chemicals as “chemicals of concern” without first publishing the scientific criteria for doing so.

Coal Combustion Products

Secured bipartisan support for House passage of H.R. 2273, the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act, a bill that would stop EPA from changing two decades of policy and improperly designating coal combustion products a hazardous waste.

Environmental Regulation

Successfully persuaded the House to include provisions in H.R. 1, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011, suspending or revising regulations for greenhouse gases, jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, Yucca Mountain closure, oil and gas production, Boiler MACT, Chesapeake Bay total maximum daily loads, retroactive vetoes of coal mining water permits, Portland Cement air toxics emissions, numeric nutrient criteria for the state of Florida, expansion of the Toxic Substances Control Act, and Clean Air Act National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
Persuaded EPA to modify several existing regulations as part of its “look back” plan required by Executive Order 13653.
Engaged OIRA review of a Department of Agriculture proposal to change its phytosanitary regulations concerning shipments to Canada.

Energy Efficiency

Persuaded the president to issue a presidential memorandum requiring that federal agencies use Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs), an existing program that uses long-term energy savings to pay for up-front costs, to accomplish energy efficient retrofits of federal buildings.

Energy Exploration and Deployment

Worked with the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness to make formal recommendations on permit streamlining for energy projects. The council appears close to adopting several of the Chamber’s recommendations.
Successfully persuaded the House to include provisions in H.R. 1, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011, curtailing abuses of the Judgment Fund and Equal Access to Justice Act.
Successfully persuaded the House to pass H.R. 1229, the Putting the Gulf Back to Work Act; H.R. 1230, the Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act; and H.R. 1231, the Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act. This suite of bills would bring a much-needed end to the de facto moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration and could create tens of thousands of jobs, many for American oil and gas employees who have lost their jobs due to the moratorium.
Successfully persuaded the House to pass H.R. 2021, the Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011, which would provide clarity and predictability to the permitting process for oil and gas exploration projects on the Outer Continental Shelf.
Prevented the imposition of punitive taxes on oil and gas production, which, if passed, could have made it economically nonviable for firms to lease or explore energy resources.
Successfully convinced a federal judge to dismiss a Sierra Club lawsuit against the Department of Defense, attempting to bar it from purchasing fuel derived from Canadian Oil Sands.

Expiration of Ethanol Subsidy

Supported the year-end expiration of the 45-cent-a-gallon ethanol subsidy, which cost taxpayers $6 billion annually, and the 54-cent-a-gallon U.S. tariff on imported ethanol.

Greenhouse Gas Regulation

Successfully urged the Supreme Court of the United States in AEP v. Connecticut to hold that the federal common law tort of public nuisance cannot be extended to greenhouse gases.
Persuaded EPA to postpone issuance of, and to more carefully consider the economic impacts of, a proposed rule setting New Source Performance Standards for greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and oil-fired electric generating units.
Successfully persuaded the House to pass H.R. 910, the Energy Tax Prevention Act, which would stop EPA from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

Mining and Minerals

Successfully persuaded the House to pass H.R. 1904, the Southeast Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2011, a bill that would enable a land swap providing the federal government with 5,344 acres of high-value conservation lands in exchange for 2,422 acres of land containing the third-largest undeveloped copper resource in the world.

Water Issue

Secured House passage of bipartisan legislation to protect state water agencies from EPA efforts to take over state programs and overturn the successful system of cooperative federalism established under the Clean Water Act almost 40 years ago and ensure that EPA takes a hard look at the economic impact of its policies and regulatory actions. Delayed EPA from unilaterally expanding its regulatory power through implementation of its draft guidance defining the “waters of the United States.”

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