WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito says President Biden’s top target in 2023 was America’s energy sector.
Capito (R-W.Va.) is the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Republicans on the committee recently released a 2023 year in review report titled “Countering Biden’s Radical Green Agenda with Rigorous Oversight & Real Solutions.”
The report highlights what it calls “the successful oversight efforts of the EPW Committee in combating the Biden administration’s overreaching and harmful energy and environmental regulations.” It also highlights bipartisan efforts championed this year by committee Republicans to deliver achievable solutions that protect the environment and strengthen American energy.
“This year, President Biden’s number one target for relentless regulation and executive overreach was American energy, mandating an unrealistic climate agenda that proved costly to American families and harmful to nearly every sector of the economy,” Capito said. “In 2023, EPW Republicans set out to expose the negative impacts of these policies, conduct crucial oversight, and importantly, offer logical, bipartisan energy and environmental alternatives that – unlike the proposals of climate activists in the Biden administration – are actually based in reality.
“President Biden’s radical climate agenda has been rejected time and time again by Democrats and Republicans in Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the American public. This report tells that story and shows there is a better way, and I’m proud of the continued work of all our members.”
In the report, the Republicans say they are focused on a robust economy, making sure federal agencies follow the law, fighting extreme climate policies and examining agencies’ use of taxpayer resources as well as exposing waste, fraud and abuse.
The report highlights the Revitalizing the Economy by Simplifying Timelines and Assuring Regulatory Transparency (RESTART) Act, which streamline the environmental permitting process for new infrastructure projects. The GOP members of the committee also want oversight of the administration’s permitting delays for carbon capture technology.
The report also details the GOP’s role in helping get the Mountain Valley Pipeline approved. The 300-mile natural gas pipeline project was part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the bipartisan debt limit bill signed by Biden in June.
The EPW Republican report also discusses the six Congressional Review Act resolutions that revoked regulations to electrify the trucking industry, the Waters of the United States rule and wildlife protection blocking development. It says GOP actions also led to reduced Federal Highway Administration regulations and the revised WOTUS rule.
The report also details efforts targeting the Environmental Protection Agency's power plant regulations on fossil fuel-fired electricity generation, the "Good Neighbor Rule," which would slow fossil fuel power generation, and particulate matter regulations that could affect manufacturing with new costs.
