Texas Insider Report WASHINGTON D.C. This morning at 8:30 am CT the Environment Subcommittee will convene a hearing entitled Examining EPAs Regional Haze Program: Regulations Without Visible Benefits to examine the Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) Regional Haze Program including its scientific underpinnings. Witnesses will discuss the impact and costs of these regulations on various stakeholders including individual states like Texas.
WITNESSES
Mr. William Yeatman Senior Fellow Competitive Enterprise Institute
Mr. Thomas P. Schroedter Executive Director and General Counsel Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers
Mr. Bruce Polkowsky Environmental Policy Consultant
Mr. Aaron M. Flynn Partner Hunton & Williams
Congress intended the Regional Haze Rule to be a state-led initiative since it is an aesthetic regulation. In addition the intent of the Regional Haze Rule was to encourage and promote state and federal agencies to work together to improve visibility inside national parks and wilderness areas. However EPA has recently imposed 14 Regional Haze Federal Implementation Plans (FIPs). Currently two additional FIPs are being finalized. The cost of the 14 Regional Haze FIPs are almost three times the combined sum of all Clean Air Act FIPs imposed by the previous three administrations.
EPA rejected Texass Regional Haze SIP and recently imposed a Regional Haze FIP on the state. On March 18 2016 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton requested a stay of this Texas FIP in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The stay would prevent the EPA from imposing its FIP until it is decided in the courts.
Texas Insider Report WASHINGTON D.C. This morning at 8:30 am CT the Environment Subcommittee will convene a hearing entitled Examining EPAs Regional Haze Program: Regulations Without Visible Benefits to examine the Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) Regional Haze Program including its scientific underpinnings. Witnesses will discuss the impact and costs of these regulations on various stakeholders including individual states like Texas.
WITNESSES
Mr. William Yeatman Senior Fellow Competitive Enterprise Institute
Mr. Thomas P. Schroedter Executive Director and General Counsel Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers
Mr. Bruce Polkowsky Environmental Policy Consultant
Mr. Aaron M. Flynn Partner Hunton & Williams
Congress intended the Regional Haze Rule to be a state-led initiative since it is an aesthetic regulation. In addition the intent of the Regional Haze Rule was to encourage and promote state and federal agencies to work together to improve visibility inside national parks and wilderness areas. However EPA has recently imposed 14 Regional Haze Federal Implementation Plans (FIPs). Currently two additional FIPs are being finalized. The cost of the 14 Regional Haze FIPs are almost three times the combined sum of all Clean Air Act FIPs imposed by the previous three administrations.
EPA rejected Texass Regional Haze SIP and recently imposed a Regional Haze FIP on the state. On March 18 2016 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton requested a stay of this Texas FIP in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The stay would prevent the EPA from imposing its FIP until it is decided in the courts.
