Exclusive: Rep. Brett Guthrie introduces measure to overturn “nonsensical” Biden-Harris regulations

Inside Rep. Brett Guthrie's latest salvo against the Biden administration's anti-energy policies...

Rep. Brett Guthrie (R., Ky.), one of the top contenders to chair the Energy and Commerce Committee in the next Congress, introduced a provision on Wednesday to overturn a recent “nonsensical” decision taken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which would punish companies that provably lower their emissions. His measure was first reported by the Washington Reporter. 

Guthrie took aim at the EPA’s controversial “Once In, Always In” policy, which “reinstates unnecessary environmental bureaucracy,” he said. His Congressional Review Act resolution would eliminate the regulation; cosponsors included Republican Reps. John Joyce (Pa.), Morgan Griffith (Va.), Gary Palmer (Ala.), Randy Weber (Texas), Troy Balderson (Ohio), Dan Crenshaw (Texas), and Greg Pence (Ind.), who are all members of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

The EPA measure Guthrie and his colleagues targeted was reversed during the Trump administration. The Biden-Harris administration, however, reversed the Trump-era rule this month, in one of the EPA’s first decisions following the Supreme Court of the United State’s overturning of Chevron deference. 

Under the Trump EPA, “major sources” could be redesignated as “area sources” if their technology standards prove a lower hazardous air pollutant (HAP) footprint. Under President Joe Biden’s new rule, once entities are listed as “major sources” of HAPs, they can never be lowered to “area sources,” which would subject them to less stringent requirements. 

“The Congressional Review Act Resolution I introduced alongside my Republicans colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee helps to address yet another nonsensical rule by the Biden-Harris EPA that not only hurts businesses across the nation, but does not incentivize the lowering of emissions,” Guthrie told the Reporter. 

“We must return to the successful Trump era policy that rewards businesses for lowering their emissions voluntarily with regulatory flexibility by reducing the costs of an overly complex bureaucratic compliance. We cannot continue to take steps backward under the Biden-Harris EPA that puts Washington, D.C. bureaucrats ahead of the American people,” he added. 

Throughout his time on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Guthrie has pushed back on “bureaucracy that halts energy projects” and fought against “Biden’s anti-coal, anti-Kentucky agenda.”