Langworthy Confronts EPA Administrator Over New Energy Regulation: 'This Rulemaking Is Unacceptable'

2 months ago

At a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) questioned EPA Administrator Michael Regan about

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Transcript

00:00Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Administrator being here with us today.

00:06And I'd like to discuss the EPA's recent final rule entitled Standards of Performance for

00:11New, Reconstructed and Modified Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources,

00:16Oil and Natural Gas Sector Climate Review. It's no secret that the final rule will have

00:21a severe impact on more than 700,000 marginal oil and gas wells throughout the United States,

00:27including wells operated by small-scale operators in my own district in the southern tier of New

00:32York. Administrator, prior rules acknowledged the need for accommodations for marginal wells.

00:38This rule should have done the same. Did EPA consider the vast differences between

00:43a marginal well operation and high-volume well operations when crafting this rule?

00:48Yes, we did.

00:50Okay. And now, under this rule, the EPA is providing no more than a 36-month regulatory

00:56compliance timeline for the oil and gas operators. Administrator Reagan, you know as well as I do

01:02that the small-scale, family-owned marginal well operators will be seriously stretched in their

01:07ability to meet the new tranche of requirements that your agency is meeting out for them under

01:13this requirement. Have you considered extending the timeline to at least accommodate the smaller

01:17well operators who, as you know, operate with fewer resources at their disposal?

01:22I believe that has been up for discussion, and we'll circle with you to see where that

01:27conversation lands.

01:27Okay. That would be very helpful. Look, I've had some very frank conversations with the

01:31oil and gas operators in my district, and these are all on the smaller scale, often family-owned

01:37operations. And they provide crucial employment and economic activity in the southern tier as

01:42well as contribute to our nation's energy needs. Twenty years ago, the federal and state regulatory

01:47burden facing these operators could fit in a small packet of paper. Today, it's practically a phone

01:51book. As with much of what the EPA has done under this and former administrators to hamstring our

01:58energy producers, this rulemaking is unacceptable.

02:01But I want to shift topics and briefly discuss EPA's recent greenhouse gas emission standards

02:06for heavy-duty vehicles, the phase three final rule. Heavy vehicles included in this rule serve

02:13dual purposes through the winter season in the Northeast. Many snow plows fall under this. In

02:18fact, it was the New York City Department of Sanitation who purchased several electric trucks

02:22to serve double duty as garbage trucks and snow removal plows, and the result is that they were

02:28removed from the street very quickly. The commissioner of the New York City Department

02:32of Sanitation said during a city council hearing in November of 22 that we need them to go 12

02:38hours a day, so I don't see today, given the current state of technology, a path forward to

02:44fully electrifying the rear loader portion of the fleet by 2040.

02:48Administrator, New York City's electric snow plow experiment failed, yet the EPA has

02:53continued to enforce several rules for vehicles that service snow plows in the winter. How do

02:58you expect plow operators in a place like Buffalo, New York, to remove 8 feet of snow during our next

03:03major disaster if electric snow plows can't last more than 3 hours with a foot of snow?

03:09Well, I think that we have taken into consideration when and where and how these vehicles perform

03:15the best, and I think as these technologies continue to evolve, we'll see these technologies

03:22expand in areas that, quite frankly, they're seeing some challenges now. When we looked at

03:26this rule nationally and we looked at the opportunities and talked with the OEMs,

03:31they gave us assurances that these vehicles could perform for their customers, which is why

03:38many of them stood with us when we issued the rule.

03:42You're using technological wish lists that don't exist. In severe weather places like

03:51what I represent in Buffalo, New York and the surrounding areas have much higher snowfalls

03:58than others, and to meet these guidelines is just completely unrealistic given today's technology.

04:04I'm running out of time, so I'm going to finish by saying this. The EPA has claimed over and over

04:08that its policies are in line with the original bipartisan mission of the agency. However,

04:12I don't believe that can be further from the truth. Under the direction of your department,

04:17Administrator, you've cost the American people trillions of dollars, you've hurt small businesses,

04:21and you've put the lives of millions of Americans in jeopardy, all in the name of climate virtue

04:25signaling. And we see it with the onslaught of regulations that have been handed down,

04:30affecting everyone from oil and gas operators to small and medium-sized communities just looking

04:35to remove snow from their streets to keep their public safe. I look forward to working with my

04:39colleagues on this committee to continue to push for greater accountability for these absurd policy

04:44priorities of your agency. And I yield back, Mr. Chairman.

Langworthy Confronts EPA Administrator Over New Energy Regulation: 'This Rulemaking Is Unacceptable'

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