WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Representative Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., have introduced the End EPA Abuse Act in Congress. The legislation aims to restrict the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from enforcing policies its sponsors contend exceed congressional authorization, specifically targeting regulations affecting power plants, vehicle fuels, and electrical grid reliability.

The bill forbids the EPA from enforcing policies determined to undermine the electrical grid's reliability. It prohibits regulations that force fossil fuel power plants to change fuel sources and disallows restrictions on the use or sale of internal-combustion engine vehicles. Additionally, the legislation bars regulations that are technically, economically, or practically infeasible.

Daren Bakst, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Center for Energy and Environment, stated the bill aims to prevent agency overreach. "Instead of reacting to agency overreach after-the-fact, this bill makes it clear up front that the EPA is prohibited from using the Clean Air Act to take actions that common sense tells us Congress never would have authorized," Bakst said. He added, "The legislation lists specific prohibitions addressing abuses we know the EPA has already engaged in and will likely try again." Bakst further stated, "It also has an important catch-all provision to prohibit other future abuses."

Bakst asserted that the EPA has attempted to function as an economic planning agency. "The agency has constantly been trying to act more like an economic planning agency than the Environmental Protection Agency," he said. He commented, "Nobody with a straight face can say that Congress wanted the EPA to use the Clean Air Act to try and kill off gas-powered cars or to change how the country produces electricity."

Twenty state attorneys general have expressed support for the End EPA Abuse Act. Supporting organizations include the American Energy Institute, the American Energy Alliance, the American Consumer Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The Clean Air Act, enacted in 1970, allowed the federal government and states to establish regulations limiting toxic air pollutant emissions from industrial and mobile sources. Amendments beginning in the 1990s expanded the EPA's authority. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked an EPA attempt to broadly limit carbon emissions from American power plants.

Why It Matters

The End EPA Abuse Act proposes legislative limits on the EPA's regulatory authority regarding power plants and internal-combustion vehicles. This effort follows a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision curbing the agency's ability to broadly regulate carbon emissions from power plants. The bill seeks to define the scope of the EPA's enforcement powers under the Clean Air Act, which has seen its authority expanded through amendments since its 1970 enactment.

The legislation focuses on grid reliability and fossil fuel use amid ongoing debates surrounding energy policy. Support from 20 state attorneys general and various energy-related organizations indicates a coordinated effort to influence federal environmental policy. The bill seeks to prevent the EPA from issuing regulations its sponsors consider overreaching, technically or economically impractical, or outside the original intent of congressional authorization.