The Fiscal Year 2025 EPA Agency Budget
Washington D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials Chair Buddy Carter (R-GA) delivered the following opening remarks at today’s subcommittee hearing titled “The Fiscal Year 2025 Environmental Protection Agency Budget.”
RUSH-TO-GREEN AGENDA IS DESTROYING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING
“I recently assumed the gavel of this subcommittee and am privileged to be able to lead this panel’s important work to advance policies which provide for environmental protection while also growing our manufacturing and industrial base.
“My district in southeast Georgia features over 100 miles of pristine coastline, the Okefenokee Swamp, and thriving forestlands.
“These are resources we cherish and strive to protect for future generations.
“We are also one of the fastest growing economies in the country.
“Billions of dollars of investment are flowing to my district, fueled by Georgia’s pro-business policies, low-electricity rates, and access to the Ports of Savannah and Brunswick.
“To the detriment of my district and the stated goals of this administration, the EPA’s regulatory agenda is poised to choke the prospects for increased prosperity.
“The recently finalized Particulate Matter—PM2.5—standard will gridlock permitting at new and expanded manufacturing facilities.
“By placing the standard so close to the natural background level, studies indicate that nearly 80 percent of manufacturing projects would fail to obtain a permit, including the $5.5 billion Hyundai EV battery plant in my district.
“Luckily, this investment received its permit before the standard was revised.
“China controls over seventy-five percent of the EV battery supply chain and actions like the PM2.5 standard threaten to tighten their chokehold on battery manufacturing.
“Meanwhile, the EPA, in its zealous rush to green agenda, has mandated that almost 70 percent of new passenger vehicles sold by 2032 be electric.
“I am not anti-EV. I believe there is a market for EVs, and we should be building up our entire supply chain, including in Georgia, to reduce reliance on China.
“However, I am anti-mandate. The EPA’s EV mandate reduces consumer choice, and its efforts to limit new critical mineral refining ties us to China and threatens grid reliability.”
EPA’S ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL APPROACH DOESN’T WORK
“While the administration pushes grandiose electrification visions, the EPA seems to have forgotten that electricity does not come from the plug.
“The illegal Clean Power Plan 2.0 threatens to shutter 16 percent of our reliable, baseload generation that comes from coal-fired power—stranding assets, raising rates, and increasing blackouts.
“Section 111 of the Clean Air Act requires the 'best system of emission reduction' to be ‘adequately demonstrated.’
“By mandating that states require coal-fired plants with a useful life beyond 2039 achieve 90 percent carbon capture by 2032, the EPA overstepped its authority and will land itself back in crosshairs of the Courts.
“No coal-fired power plant in North America has achieved a 90 percent capture rate. There are no projects to demonstrate this even close to deployment. Guesswork is not a basis for telling states what standards to set.
“The EPA does not even have a history of timely permitting the injection wells necessary for carbon sequestration.
“I note, two states EPA has finally allowed to do this have permitted more injection sites in just two years than the EPA has in a decade—not a sign that EPA is serious about relying on this technology.”
IMPORTANCE OF WORKING WITH STATE REGULATORS
“I am surprised, that since you are a former State regulator, the administration has not more effectively leveraged your experience and relationships with your co-regulators, the States.
“Unfortunately, a much different relationship has been fostered and it is my view that the agency has drifted far from the statutory principle of cooperative federalism.
“Last year’s Interstate Transport Rule underscores this sad situation.
“In the rule, the EPA denied 21 State Implementation Plans for ozone standards and less than one month later, the agency imposed Federal Implementation Plans on 23 states, nearly half of the country.
“Now, the agency finds itself again in the Supreme Court. Something that could have been avoided if the agency had worked with its co-regulators.
“Today, we will explore these regulatory topics, as well as the agency’s activities with its massive infusion of funding from the IRA.
“It is imperative that Congress conducts robust oversight of the more than $41.5 billion given to EPA in the IRA, including the $31 billion in taxpayer funds the EPA was provided for its green bank and environmental justice block grant programs.”
Pallone Applauds EPA's Historic Progress Combating the Climate Crisis & Protecting Americans' Health at Hearing with Administrator Regan
Washington, D.C. – Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. delivered the following opening remarks at today's Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials Subcommittee hearing titled, "Fiscal Year 2025 Environmental Protection Agency Budget Request” with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan:
I would like to welcome Administrator Regan back to the Committee. Thank you for being here today to discuss President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Since our last budget hearing, EPA has been hard at work protecting public health and the environment. The agency has been implementing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act that were delivered last Congress by President Biden and Congressional Democrats. I look forward to hearing about the Agency’s progress. These laws are directing investments into communities across the nation, modernizing our aging infrastructure and helping us lead the world in the transition to a clean energy economy.
Last month, the Administration announced $20 billion in grant awards as part of the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to deploy clean energy projects in communities nationwide. In February, the EPA announced the final $1 billion allotment of funding – for a total of $3.5 billion – from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to clean up contaminated Superfund sites. And then, earlier this month, the EPA announced $3 billion in funding to replace up to 1.7 million toxic lead service lines nationwide.
These investments are already making a difference. More than 271,000 clean energy jobs have already been created, with millions of good-paying American jobs expected over the next decade. The investments from these two laws will grow our economy and cut costs for American families.
The President’s fiscal year 2025 request builds on the success of our historic climate laws by investing in the health, safety, and prosperity of all American families and moving the country forward.
To combat the climate crisis, I am pleased that the budget invests nearly $3 billion for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping communities build resilience to the impacts of a changing climate. EPA will continue to drive down potent super pollutants with key climate programs to cut methane and curb the production and use of hydrofluorocarbons. And the budget includes funding to implement achievable carbon pollution standards for fossil fuel power plants and vehicles — as directed by Congress.
I also commend the Administration for devoting $170 million to combat PFAS pollution and increase funding to effectively implement the Toxic Substances Control Act. This funding will allow the agency to evaluate and manage risks from toxic chemicals to protect workers and families. This investment builds on EPA’s recent drinking water standards and hazardous substance designations for specific PFAS chemicals, which will protect Americans from these forever chemicals.
The budget request supplements the revenue collected from the reinstatement of the Superfund tax to fund more cleanup activities. I fought for decades to reinstate this tax, and thanks to these new laws it is once again a reality.
I am also pleased to see the budget bolster EPA’s work to advance environmental justice through the President’s Justice40 initiative.
Overall, I believe this budget request appropriately prioritizes the protection of human health and the environment. It demonstrates the value the Biden EPA places on ensuring access to clean air and water, meeting our shared climate goals, driving innovation in homegrown clean energy, creating good paying middle class jobs, and protecting American consumers by holding polluters accountable.
This budget stands in stark contrast to the Republicans’ polluters over people agenda. It’s bad enough that not one Republican on this Committee supported either the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or the Inflation Reduction Act, but they have spent the last year trying to undermine these investments at every turn.
Republicans are also working behind closed doors with the Trump campaign to develop a radical policy road map that would repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, slash the EPA, and dismantle bedrock environmental protections. And according to recent reports, Trump is selling off his policy priorities to the highest bidder – to the tune of demanding $1 billion in campaign contributions from big oil and gas corporations, in exchange for executing their pro-polluter agenda.
The priorities of Democrats and the Biden Administration could not be more different, and the President’s fiscal year 2025 request reflects that. I appreciate Administrator Regan’s leadership and am committed to working together to secure a more sustainable future for all Americans
