MATS and HAPS Regulations Pose Substantial Threat to the Economy, Americans Deserve Accountability
ARLINGTON, VA— The recent Supreme Court’s recent denial of review in two separate proceedings concerning two Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air emissions regulations leaves in place two Biden administration rules that will have devastating impacts on the energy sector, affecting America’s economy.
AFP Energy Policy Fellow Faith Burns issued the following statement:
“The Biden administration’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) regulation and its Hazardous Air Pollutants Standards (HAPS) for coal and oil-fired electric utility generating units regulation place restrictions on energy producers that are some of the most counterproductive and harmful regulations to ever be proposed – let alone implemented. These regulations won’t just increase costs and destroy jobs, but they have the potential to impact the reliability of the electric power grid affecting the millions of people who need it to survive.
We all want a cleaner environment, but you’d be hard pressed to find a more damaging and less effective plan than those set out in these regulations. This is not about the environment; it’s about putting an industry out of business.
Worse, despite all the damage it will do to the economy, not a single Member of Congress was afforded an opportunity to vote on these regulations. That needs to change. The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act (REINS) would ensure that a regulatory process with strict Congressional oversight is in place.
AFP is committed to putting an end to these kinds of onerous executive agency actions by making it clear that federal agencies are accountable to Congress. The REINs Act would require an agency promulgating a rule to provide detailed information to each House of Congress so that Congress may effectively perform its responsibilities and bring accountability back to Washington – which is exactly what Americans deserve.”
