Rep. Clyde, Sen. Lee Introduce End EPA Abuse Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Representative Andrew Clyde (GA-09) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the End EPA Abuse Act, legislation to amend the Clean Air Act to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from abusing its regulatory authority.

"Under the Biden Administration, the EPA increasingly treated the Clean Air Act as a blank check to push de facto electric vehicle mandates, jeopardize reliable energy sources, and impose costly regulations on American consumers and businesses," said Clyde. "Unelected Washington bureaucrats should never have the power to dictate what kind of car Americans drive or how our country produces electricity. The End EPA Abuse Act puts Congress back in the driver's seat where it belongs, preventing any future Democrat Administration from abusing the EPA's regulatory authority to advance the Left's radical, anti-American energy agenda."

"The EPA has overstepped its authority as far as possible to put America's energy producers in a chokehold," said Lee. "They've exploited any power they can grab to push Biden and Obama's climate psychosis at the expense of our energy security. They make up and enforce regulations to suffocate America's energy producers and devastate major sectors of our economy. The End EPA Abuse Act will clarify once and for all that policymaking belongs to Congress, whom the American people have elected - not to the leftwing bureaucracy."

The End EPA Abuse Act is supported by the American Energy Institute, American Consumer Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Frontiers of Freedom Institute, Eagle Forum, Less Government, the Heartland Institute, Center for a Free Economy, American Energy Alliance, Truth in Energy and Climate, the John Locke Foundation, and the Center for Energy and Conservation at Independent Women's Voice.

"The EPA is supposed to be focused on environmental protection, not on trying to stretch the Clean Air Act to change the very nature of our economy. Yet this is exactly what has been happening in recent years. Not long ago, people would have been thought of as wacky if they claimed the EPA would try to use the Clean Air Act to kill off gas-powered cars or try and change how the country produces electricity. But this is exactly what the agency has been doing," said CEI's Center for Energy and Environment Director and Senior Fellow Daren Bakst.

"The End EPA Abuse Act establishes much-needed guardrails on the EPA. The bill is a means by which Congress would be reasserting its power while still allowing the EPA to do its job to protect the environment. The only thing the bill prohibits is the greatest abuses that common sense tells us Congress never authorized in the first place. Sen. Lee and Rep. Clyde should be commended for introducing this critical reform bill," Bakst added.

The End EPA Abuse Act also received a letter of support from 20 state Attorneys General, led by West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey.

Read the bill text HERE.

Original co-sponsors of Rep. Clyde's End EPA Abuse Act include (14): Representatives Mike Bost (IL-12), Michael Cloud (TX-27), Randy Fine (FL-06), Russ Fulcher (ID-01), Pat Harrigan (NC-10), Clay Higgins (LA-03), Mary Miller (IL-15), Barry Moore (AL-01), Gary Palmer (Al-06), Scott Perry (PA-10), John Rose (TN-06), David Schweikert (AZ-01), Greg Steube (FL-17), and Derrick Van Orden (WI-03).

Background

The End EPA Abuse Act amends Section 301 of the Clean Air Act to prevent regulatory overreach by:

• Prohibiting regulations or waivers that could expand the EPA's authority beyond congressional intent.
• Blocking the EPA from restricting the sale or use of any vehicle or engine, including new internal combustion engine vehicles.
• Preventing rules that require fuel-switching at power plants or force abandonment of coal or natural gas.
• Stopping regulations that reduce grid reliability or jeopardize dependable energy supply.
• Prohibiting mandates requiring unavailable, cost-prohibitive, or technically infeasible technologies, including those viable only with subsidies.