House Introduces Bill to Prevent Federal Agencies From Regulating Greenhouse Gases Under Existing Laws

Representative Gary Palmer (R-AL-6) introduced a bill entitled “Stopping EPA Overreach Act of 2017” (H.R. 637). The purpose of the bill is to prevent EPA  and other agencies from using their existing statutory authority federal to regulate greenhouse gases.

It includes the following findings:

(1) the Environmental Protection Agency has exceeded its statutory authority by promulgating regulations that were not contemplated by Congress in the authorizing language of the statutes enacted by Congress;

(2) the Environmental Protection Agency was correct not to classify greenhouse gases as pollutants prior to 2009;

(3) no Federal agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under current law; and

(4) no attempt to regulate greenhouse gases should be undertaken without further Congressional action.

It also directly amends the CAA to specify that greenhouse gases are not air pollutants, and specifies that the following statutes cannot be used to regulate climate change: the CAA, Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SDWA).

The bill would have implications for all of the EPA regulations outlined in our regulation database, as well as listing decisions and critical habitat designations issued under the ESA, and environmental reviews conducted by all agencies (including the Coal Leasing programmatic environmental review).