Conflicting Views

Since Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States in 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed and promulgated numerous regulations under many of the 11 pollution control statutes Congress has directed it to implement. The statutes also mandate that EPA conduct periodic reviews of many of the standards and rules that it issues. Committees have conducted vigorous oversight of the agency's actions; oversight and efforts to limit EPA's activities accelerated in the 114 th Congress. Environmental groups generally believe that the agency moved in the right direction, but in several cases they would have liked the regulatory actions to be stronger or to have occurred sooner. That EPA is running scared." The report identifies and briefly characterizes major regulatory actions promulgated, proposed, or under development by EPA from January 2009 to late 2016. Each entry in this report (1) gives the name or, where appropriate, the common name of the regulatory action (e.g., the Clean Power Plan or Mountaintop Mining in Appalachia); (2) explains what the action does; (3) states the current status of the rule or action (e.g., proposed September 20, 2013); (4) explains the significance of the action, providing information on estimated costs and benefits, where available; (5) discusses the timeline for implementation, and whether there is a nondiscretionary congressional deadline or a court order or remand driving its development; and (6) identifies a CRS analyst who would be the contact for further information. They may also be substantially altered before they become final and take effect, as a result of the proposal and public comment process, and/or judicial review. EPA has also, in several cases, reconsidered rules after promulgation, changing what were announced as "final" standards, and, in some cases, granting additional time for compliance. Existing sources generally have several years following promulgation and effective dates of standards, therefore, to comply with any standards. In the 114 th Congress, opponents of EPA's initiatives, who maintained that the agency was exceeding its authority, again considered various approaches to altering the agency's course, including riders on appropriations bills, stand-alone legislation, resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act, and amendments to the underlying environmental statutes. With Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate, the 114 th Congress accelerated oversight activities of the Administration's initiatives and legislative efforts to limit EPA's regulatory activities. Critics both in Congress and outside of it regularly accuse the agency of overreach. The pace of new proposed and final regulations has waxed and waned. It thus provides an overview of major environmental regulations and regulatory issues that were prominent and controversial during the eight years of the Obama Administration. Of these, most would have faced only an administrative requirement to provide an estimate of their GHG emissions. Other Clean Air Act Rules

22. EPA states that this regulatory action would not directly invoke any costs or benefits.
Since Barack Obama was sworn in as President in 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed and promulgated numerous regulations to implement the pollution control statutes enacted by Congress. Critics have reacted strongly. Some, both within Congress and outside of it, have accused the agency of reaching beyond the authority given it by Congress and ignoring or underestimating the costs and economic impacts and overestimating the benefits of proposed and promulgated rules. The House conducted vigorous oversight of the agency in the 112th and 113th Congresses, and approved several bills that would overturn specific regulations or limit the agency's authority. Particular attention was paid to the Clean Air Act, but there also was congressional scrutiny of other environmental statutes and regulations implemented by EPA. With Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, the 114th Congress accelerated oversight of the Administration's initiatives and renewed efforts to limit EPA's regulatory activities.
Environmental groups and other supporters of the agency disagree that EPA has overreached. Many of them believe that the agency has, in fact, moved in the right direction, including taking action on significant issues that had been long delayed or ignored in the past. In several cases, environment and public health advocates would have liked the regulatory actions to be stronger.
EPA has stated that critics' focus on the cost of controls obscured the benefits of new regulations, which, it estimates, far exceed the costs. It maintains that pollution control is an important source of economic activity, exports, and American jobs. Further, the agency and its supporters have said that EPA is carrying out the mandates detailed by Congress in the federal environmental statutes.
This report provides background information on EPA regulatory activity during the Obama Administration to help address these issues. It examines major or controversial regulatory actions taken by or under development at EPA from January 2009 to late 2016, providing details on the regulatory action itself, presenting an estimated timeline for completion of rules not yet promulgated (including identification of related court or statutory deadlines), and, in general, providing EPA's estimates of costs and benefits, where available.
The report also discusses factors that affect the time frame in which regulations take effect, including statutory and judicial deadlines, public comment periods, judicial review, and permitting procedures, the net results of which are that existing facilities are likely to have several years before being required to comply with most of the regulatory actions under discussion. Unable to account for such factors, which will vary from case to case, timelines that show dates for proposal and promulgation of EPA regulations effectively underestimate the complexities of the regulatory process and overstate the near-term impact of many of the regulatory actions.