The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced massive deregulatory action focused on greenhouse gas emissions, a move Utah Sen. John Curtis said was in response to the enforcement of “bad policy.”
During a press conference at the Utah Capitol on Thursday, Curtis said of the former regulations, “The best way to get rid of a bad policy is to enforce it to the fullest. And I think what happened in the Biden administration is they leaned into a lot of bad policy.”
Overturning the 2009 “endangerment finding” has been the “single largest act of deregulation” in American history, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said.
The EPA’s move, challenged by environmental groups, repeals reporting obligations, compliance programs and credit provisions for industries that produce greenhouse gas emissions, excluding power plants and other stationary oil-and-gas facilities.
The president has said the regulatory cuts will save Americans $1.3 trillion and lower the cost of a new vehicle by $3,000, as the Deseret News previously reported.
Curtis says he hopes Congress will codify similar moves
Deregulation done only administratively “will be overturned,” Curtis said. “We should have found a consensus to put it into law, and then you wouldn’t have this flip-flopping back and forth.”
Curtis also referenced his Fix Our Forests Act, which was jointly sponsored by Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo.; Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.; and Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont.
The bill aims to combat wildfires by designating high-risk “fireshed management areas.” In these areas, the Interior Department or the Forest Service will do mechanical thinning, tree removals and hazardous fuel management. It also mandates a 150-foot vegetation clearance radius for electrical transmission rights-of-way.
“We’re just passing the year anniversary of those terrible fires in California,” Curtis said. “Those fires put out more greenhouse gas emissions than California has saved with all their efforts in 20 years.”
The bill is a “common sense piece of legislation that will not only help with our forest management, but with our emissions.”
In the House, the bill passed 279-141, and while it hasn’t been voted on in the Senate yet, it came out of committee 18-3.