Thune: Senate to Overturn California Waiver Rules
“[T]he California waivers rules are an improper expansion of a limited Clean Air Act authority and would endanger consumers, our economy, and our nation’s energy supply.”
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:
Thune’s remarks below (as delivered):
“Mr. President, this week we’re going to be moving to take up Congressional Review Act resolutions to overturn Clean Air Act preemption waivers the Environmental Protection Agency granted to California that allow California to dictate emissions standards for the whole country – effectively imposing a nationwide electric vehicle mandate.
“Now, Clean Air Act waivers are nothing new, Mr. President.
“The Clean Air Act allowed for waivers to address specific pollution problems, and over the decades a number of them have been granted.
“But the waivers the Biden EPA handed to California on the Biden administration’s way out the door go far beyond the scope Congress contemplated in the Clean Air Act.
“The waivers in question allow California to implement a stringent electric vehicle mandate, which – given California’s size and the fact that a number of other states have signed on to California’s mandate – would end up not just affecting the state of California, but the whole country.
“Under California’s electric vehicle mandate, automakers around the country would be forced to close down a substantial part of their traditional vehicle production, with serious consequences.
“Diminished economic output.
“Job losses.
“Declining tax revenues.
“And that, Mr. President, is just the start.
“Consumers around the country would face fewer choices, higher prices, and reduced automobile availability.
“And our already shaky electric grid would quickly face huge new burdens from the surge in new electric vehicles – if, of course, automakers were able to ramp up production as fast as California wants them to, and charging stations, which typically take several years to approve, could be built in time.
“Mr. President, our nation is already facing serious problems on the energy supply front.
“We are, to quote a Washington Post headline from last March, ‘running out of power,’ as a surge in demand and the premature retirement of fossil fuel-fired power plants push us to the brink.
“Our electric grid is simply not in a position to absorb a huge surge in electric vehicles.
“Unfortunately that didn’t seem to register with President Biden, who implemented a nationwide electric vehicle mandate that the Trump EPA is currently working to undo.
“But while the Biden EPA’s EV mandate was bad, Mr. President, California’s is much worse.
“And if we don’t act, the consequences to our economy, to consumers, and to our electricity supply could be devastating.
“The House, Mr. President, has already passed a CRA resolution to repeal California’s mandate – and the situation is so grave that not just Republicans but 35 Democrats supported this repeal.
“But here in the Senate, Mr. President, Democrats are attempting to derail a repeal by throwing a tantrum over a supposed procedural problem.
“The California waivers are not rules, Democrats claim, and thus the Congressional Review Act cannot be used to repeal them.
“Mr. President, let’s be very clear.
“The EPA has submitted the waivers to Congress as rules – which is all that Congress has ever needed to decide to consider something under the Congressional Review Act.
“The House, as I said, passed a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval – a resolution that garnered 35 Democrat votes in the House and was passed without objection from the House parliamentarian.
“And there can be no question that these waivers are rules in substance, given their widespread effects.
“But it is true that we are facing something of a novel situation.
“Because for the first time ever, the Government Accountability Office has decided to insert itself into the process and affirmatively declare that an agency rule submitted to Congress as a rule is not a rule.
“It’s an extraordinary deviation from precedent for an agency that should be defending Congress’ power instead of constraining it.
“And frankly, Mr. President, I think we need to act to ensure that this intrusion into the Congressional Review Act process doesn’t become a habit, and that the Senate doesn’t end up transferring its decision-making power on CRA resolutions to the Government Accountability Office.
“That’s why this week I intend to bring the question of GAO’s unprecedented interference to the floor.
“But in the meantime, I want to make one thing very clear.
“This debate, Mr. President, is not about destroying Senate procedure, or any other hysterical claim that Democrats are making.
“And I have to say that my colleagues’ newfound interest in defending Senate procedure is touching – if a touch surprising.
“After all, it’s only last year that Democrats were planning to destroy one of the bedrocks of the Senate, the legislative filibuster.
“And of course Democrats’ concern about overruling the parliamentarian is a bit unexpected, given Democrats’ documented history of attempting to do exactly that.
“But I am glad to see Democrats demonstrating an interest in safeguarding the Senate.
“However, Mr. President, the fact of the matter is that their purported concerns here are entirely misplaced.
“We are not talking about doing anything to erode the institutional character of the Senate; in fact, we are talking about preserving the Senate’s prerogatives.
“And I would like to see senators from both parties vote to uphold the Senate’s rights under the Congressional Review Act – even if Democrats support the California Green New Deal rule in question.
“Mr. President, the California waivers rules are an improper expansion of a limited Clean Air Act authority and would endanger consumers, our economy, and our nation’s energy supply.
“And I look forward to overturning these rules in the very near future.”
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